Mixed and Mastered
Mixed and Mastered is the podcast where the untold stories of the music industry come to life. Hosted by Jeffrey Sledge, a veteran music executive and former VP of A&R at Atlantic Records and Jive Records, each episode dives deep into the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of the people shaping the sound of today. From label executives and producers to artists, songwriters, and managers, Jeffrey brings you behind the scenes to meet the minds driving the industry forward. There’s a gap in the marketplace for these voices, and Mixed and Mastered is here to fill it—one conversation at a time. Because the best stories are told by those who lived them.
Mixed and Mastered
Angelique Miles
From A&R meetings to ab workouts, Angelique Miles has lived many lives—and in this episode of Mixed and Mastered, she’s telling all. Join us for a powerful, no-holds-barred conversation as Angelique takes us from her roots in Queens, NY, to the boardrooms of Warner Chappell and Universal, where she helped shape the sound of hip-hop and R&B alongside legends like Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott, and Busta Rhymes.
But the journey doesn’t stop there.
Angelique opens up about navigating personal loss, the shifting tides of the music industry, and how she boldly stepped into a new chapter as a wellness and lifestyle influencer. We talk beauty, balance, the art of the pivot, and why being over 50 is just the beginning. Get ready for a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and staying real in a world that’s constantly remixing itself.
Hit play—you don’t want to miss this one.
Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
On this week's Mixed and Mastered, we're joined by Angelique Miles. Angelique has published some of the biggest names in music, including Missy Elliott, timberland, busta Rhymes and Old Dirty Bastard. Since then, angelique has reinvented herself as a leading beauty and wellness influencer. Angelique tells us her journey of resilience and reinvention. It's never too late to rewrite your story. This is Mixed and Mastered with Angelique Miles. Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, the podcast where the stories of the music industry come to life. I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringing you real conversations with the people who have shaped the sound of music. We're pulling back the curtain on what it takes to make it in the music business. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. Mixed and Mastered with Angelique Miles. The infamous Angelique Miles. How are you, angelique?
Speaker 2:I'm great. How are you Good? You're looking good.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you smell good.
Speaker 2:I do. I always smell good, Even if I'm going to the gym. I spritz on something clean.
Speaker 1:People fucking in the gym is nasty. Yeah, fucking people in the gym is nasty. Well, you people in the gym is nasty.
Speaker 2:It's like Well, you know I go to like this private studio, so that doesn't happen too often, but there are some stinky people in the other gym I go to.
Speaker 1:We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. We're going to start from the beginning. So, born and raised in Queens, new York, that's right Southside, to be exact, south South side to be exact, south side.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. Oh, you're not. I'm from Charleston, I'm not from the South Side.
Speaker 1:Okay, excuse me, my fault, my fault.
Speaker 2:I'm from a nice community, not that the South Side isn't, but I live closer to the borderline. I grew up closer to the borderline of Nassau County. Okay, so tell me about that. Tell me about growing up in Queens. Growing up in Queens, I had a great experience growing up in Queens. It was, you know, I grew up in the seventies. There was very that not just Laurelton but Jamaica Queens in general was very Afro, you know, like it was very Black power time going on.
Speaker 2:So my friends my best friend's big sister had us doing plays for block parties, like reciting poetry and wearing African garb and learning Swahili. We even had like a Laurelton Researchers Club where we researched the history of where we lived. My friend's older sister did that for us. It was like a group called the Laurelton Researchers Club. So we found out that Laurelton was named for the Laurel Bush and at that time there were still some Jewish people living in the neighborhood. So we interviewed them and they would tell us, like Merrick used to be a stream. And so, yeah, I had a great childhood, I went to Catholic school so.
Speaker 2:I didn't really get to meet a lot of people in the neighborhood because I went to Catholic school. I didn't go to the school around the corner, but my mother was a teacher at August Martin High School. A lot of people knew her but no, I had a great childhood.
Speaker 1:So tell me about your kind of first clicks, that you were a music lover.
Speaker 2:I became a music lover because my uncles both of them had huge record collections. So my uncle Bernard came to live with us Well, my father's from DC, so I traveled to DC a lot. My uncle there had a huge record collection. And then one of my uncles, my father's other brother, came to live with us for a while and he brought his record collection with him. So I would sit in the living room you know that's where the record player was and listen to music with him and he was a big earth, wind and fire fan and maze and parliament like before it was parliament funkadelic, um. And I used to read the liner notes. And it was so funny because I just saw a social media post yesterday that was talking about Skip Scarborough and that specifically Skip Scarborough's name always stuck out to me as a kid because I guess because of Skip Wind, fire fan.
Speaker 2:And I remember particularly this one time. I loved Heat Wave's Boogie Nights. So I would listen to the radio all day, waiting for Boogie Nights to come on, and my mother got sick of it so she finally bought me the album. Either she bought me the album or one of my brothers did. Somebody bought me the album and my uncle worked nights. So I went to school. I came home and he was like always and forever is the cut. I was like, okay, but you know, to this day I'm like wow, he knew.
Speaker 1:He knew.
Speaker 2:Always. Forever was the cut.
Speaker 1:It still is.
Speaker 2:It still is the cut. But uh, then my other uncle in dc, he had a different kind of collection so I used to listen to whenever we visited my grandparents he lived with my grandparents I would just lock myself in his room he was never home and just um listen to his music. And I got got into Patti LaBelle Okay, singers like that Through my other uncle's record collection.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I know that you're also a big club music fan and was on the club scene. Did this happen before you went away to school or after you came back, or was it like during?
Speaker 2:Well, I like companies, but also I'll take it back. I love Go-Go because I was in DC a lot traveling to see my grandparents and my god sister would have me with her at Howard Theater, the Panorama Room. And I loved Go-Go. During my high school years I had the Red Essence records. I brought all that stuff in DC and brought it back home. I love, love, love Go-Go. I think I got into club music in college because that's when I started going to the Paradise Garage.
Speaker 1:Like 1985.
Speaker 2:I was a to the Paradise Garage Okay, like 1985. And I was a freshman at Hampton, so that got me into clubbing, just being in that environment, and I think the radio must have been playing some of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, new York radio playing a lot of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Friday and Saturday nights was Mr Magic and Red Alert of course, but then there was some kind of time that club music came on too like.
Speaker 1:Timmy.
Speaker 2:Wedgesford.
Speaker 1:Especially on BLS. Yeah, yeah, they did a lot.
Speaker 2:And at the youngest 15, I went to clubs. Like back then you could sneak into a club with fake ID.
Speaker 1:Yeah, plus you're kind of tall, so you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like my older brother's girlfriend would sneak me in with her to Justine's and stuff like that. So I got into club music that way, but mainly going to the Paradise Garage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so wait, before we get deep into that, tell me about your experience at Hampton University.
Speaker 2:Hampton was like a kind of a culture shock for me because I went to an all-girl, predominantly white Catholic high school I never went to. I didn't go to high school with boys, so when I got to Hampton, crazy Black college boys. But you know, to their credit, hampton had us for the first six weeks freshman, first six weeks, you on a curfew.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:You couldn't just be out in the street. So yeah, we had a I think it was 12 o'clock curfew. But we had a curfew. You had to be in a room by a certain time.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Wow, and if you wanted to go away for the weekend or go, you know you had to sign out, so I used to sign out you had to be outside.
Speaker 2:I would go stay with, like my older friends in their dorm, yeah, you know. But Hampton was great because I got to connect with I don't know. Growing up in Queens you just see one kind of person. You know what I mean. And at Hampton I saw all kinds of Black people. You know, affluent Black people, people who got there the same way I did, people who got there other ways, just people from all walks of life but all different and I'm very grateful that I was able to experience that, very grateful that I was able to experience it. Hbcu, like Hampton, was a great experience.
Speaker 1:I always tell people that, because I went to Morgan, another black college, and I always tell people it's the kind of thing with you Like when I went to Morgan I was like, oh, we're all black, but we ain't all the same, Right.
Speaker 1:No, we all black, but we ain't all the same, right, you know, because people from Philly are way different than the people from Chicago, and the people from DC are way different than the people from New York, and so on and so on. It was a culture shock kind of thing, and some people have had mad money, some people were really struggling, some people were like middle class, you know, kind of just making a way, and it was just this melting pot of blackness, you know, and I loved that.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it was so, because we used to go to people's houses on the weekends, like it would just be like, oh yeah, a group of us would go and stay at you know, my friend Ernest, we used to go to his house all the time he was from Mitchellville, Maryland. That's the first time I ever heard of Mitchellville, but we used to just go to his house for the weekend. His mom would cook breakfast for us, we would go party, we would just, you know, and they lived. You know his family was very successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mitchellville's nice. That's where the company's from Mitchellville yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, we're friends to this day and his younger sister and I are friends. The whole family went to Hampton basically and but yeah, things like that, and people would come to my house for the weekend too. My mother would wake up and there'd be like seven of us on the floor. Yeah, there'd be like seven of us on the floor, yeah, in the living room you kind of laid out. But I remember just going to people's houses and like wow, people live like this.
Speaker 1:This is wild black people like living like really well, you know, um so. So when did you feel realize that? When did you want to make music a career and when did you realize that was possible? How did you realize that? When did you want to make music a career and when did you realize that was possible? How did you realize that was possible?
Speaker 2:okay, this is a funny story because my friend, terry haskins, who also went to hampton she was friends at the time and still friend but uh, I was working at sherson lehman hutton on the 102nd floor of World Trade Center, really, and I was like this cannot be life.
Speaker 1:It was too cold, too boring. What?
Speaker 2:It took an hour and a half to get to Wall Street from Queens and I had to be at work at 830 in the morning. This is the late 80s and the boss the head of mutual funds at the time did not want women wearing pants to work. That's how crazy it was.
Speaker 1:I forget his name. Remember that movie was out. What was the movie? Wall? Street. What's the one with the women? Oh fuck, Working Girl. Exactly that was like real life you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I was wearing my sneakers to work with the skirts and all that.
Speaker 1:Nine to Five is the movie I was talking about, but same kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Working Girl is the same thing with Melanie Griffin and I was just like this can't be life, this is not how I want to live my life. So I just quit one day, really. And my mother was just like how are you just going to quit your job? I was like I'll temp. How are you going to quit that good job? Right, you're not gonna just lay up here and not work. I was like the fact that she even thought I would do that was crazy to me, because I was like I like money, I like hanging out like there's no way I'm not working yeah so, um, but I was like I'm gonna take a week or so and then I'm to start going out to these temp agencies.
Speaker 2:And that's what I did. I went to because I typed really fast, like my mother made me learn how to type, and I took typing in high school like all-girl Catholic high schools they taught you to type. So I would just go around the temp agencies. I'd type like 80 words per minute. I'd get hired for reception jobs or secretary jobs, just to you know. And it was actually. It was a great experience because I got to work all over the city, meet all kinds of people and one day they sent me to Capitol Records in our department. That's how it is. But it was a mission. I manifested it because after I talked to Terry, okay, when I was working at Shearson Lehman Hutton, you know you have a regular job. They you get off.
Speaker 2:Christmas day, but then you got to go to work the next day. So I was talking to Terry on Christmas day and I was like hell yeah, so we got to go to work tomorrow. She was like, oh no, she worked at RCA and I forget who she worked with. She was assisting someone. And she said, oh no, the whole industry has off for the week, like we have off from Christmas to. I was like I need to be in that. I was like I really need to be in that industry. I was like I really need to be in that business. I was like that's great, I don't have to work, you don't have to go work. So I was like I should be in the music industry. I love music. I don't know what I want to do in the music industry, but I know I want to be in it. And I remember interviewing with Laverne Perry. I thought maybe I should be a publicist.
Speaker 2:If she had hired me, I would have become a publicist. But because I went to Capitol Records A&R and I worked with Josh Deutsch for a couple of days, people were calling full force, like Bo Legalu and Freddie Jackson, those were the big people at Capital at the time.
Speaker 2:And Suzanne Baptiste was working with Kenny Ortiz right across from me, and I was like well, I really want to work in the industry. Do you know of any available positions? She was like well, doreen Alexander, upstairs at EMI, is looking for an assistant. Give me your resume and I'll give it to him. And I did and I got the job. That's how I got. So I worked for an A&R person. That's why I became an A&R person, I think.
Speaker 1:Who was some of the first acts you worked with? Hmm, who was some of the first acts you worked with?
Speaker 2:Who did Dwayne have? It was a group he told the UBC or something like that.
Speaker 2:They weren't successful okay he had taken over Scott Folk's position, but we had Jazz. That's who he had Jazz. That's how I met Jay-Z back in the day, because he used to come up with Jazz, so I guess that was the most successful. But at EMI that's how I met Jay-Z back in the day, because he used to come up with jazz, they had a lot of jazz, so I guess that was the most successful. But at EMI there was, like Red Hot Chili Peppers, emf, unbelievable Jerry. What was Jerry's last name was the head of A&R Black Eye, and that's when Barnell Johnson was there too.
Speaker 2:Gwynese Coleman people like that, and that was a great experience too. My first experience was I worked for good people. Dwayne Alexander was very good to me and he had a special thing. He was like these are the publishing divas. So if Rochelle feels Jodi Gerson or Brenda Andrews calls, get me on the phone. You know, just find me. I was like publishing divas. So if Rochelle Fields Jodi Gerson or Brenda Andrews calls, get me on the phone. You know, like, just find me. I was like publishing divas. Who are these people? So yeah, that was my first job in the business And-.
Speaker 1:How long were you there?
Speaker 2:I think about a year or so. I think they let Dwayne go because that's how you know there was a new regime.
Speaker 2:They let go the head of A&R, so everybody had to go. Then I worked for Kimberly Thornton at Busted Records, which was Hammer's label, and I was pregnant at that time. So throughout my pregnancy I worked Hammer's label and I was pregnant at that time. So throughout my pregnancy I worked for Busted. Then, after I had my son, paris was over at Epic. So I went to Epic and worked for Paris Davis, who signed Groove Theory, and Terry and Monica, which is a whole other story, but his main signing was Groove Theory.
Speaker 1:So wait before we go. How was it working with Hammond's people? Was Hammond, he was Can't Touch this, and All that was out at the time. What's?
Speaker 2:that.
Speaker 1:Can't Touch this and All that was out at the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he was huge he was selling 10 million records a pop. Wow, he was huge, huge, huge. Him and Garth Brooks would be vying for the number one album in the country at the time and everybody, they were both selling like tens of millions. It was crazy numbers back then and it wasn't. It was very much a satellite office experience. We worked in the Capitol offices, so it's almost still like I worked at Capitol, cause it was like specifically the blue note offices and Bruce Lundvall was still there.
Speaker 2:Some of the old school guys was still there and um yeah, so that after I had my son, a few months later, I worked at Epic.
Speaker 1:And how was that?
Speaker 2:That was great. That's where you know I met the majority of connections that I that I would use throughout my publishing career, because Vivian worked there.
Speaker 1:Vivian was on the show.
Speaker 2:I love Vivian and I'll tell you why. Vivian Polly. Anthony Hank Caldwell was there. It was still running Black Black.
Speaker 1:Music Division.
Speaker 2:Hank Caldwell. That's where I met Gwen. Niles and I Both went to Hampton at different times, but I met Gwen when she was working with Vivian there and, um, just, you know handful of good people and that's back then. You recall they? They had parties at the opening of an envelope, like it didn't matter what was happening, who you were.
Speaker 1:And a big, big party at the opening of an envelope.
Speaker 2:It didn't matter what was happening, who, you were New artists and big parties, big lavish parties, Big lavish album release parties with open bars and food. So as an assistant I would go to all the parties All the Like. Every album release party I was going to, you got to meet the other assistants and other executives. I went to everything.
Speaker 1:What artists did you work with at Epic when you were there?
Speaker 2:At Epic Groove Theory.
Speaker 1:Okay, you have any stories?
Speaker 2:about that, terry and Monica. That album didn't do well but Groove Theory was huge. It took a while to get that. Album didn't do well, but Groove Theory was huge, so it took a while to get that album done. But through him, through Paris, I met Hiram Hicks, I met Cassandra Mills.
Speaker 1:I met so many people working with Paris so do you have any crazy, crazy air quotes? Groove Story, groove Theory stories that you wanted that you were willing to be talking about. Nothing crazy, nothing crazy.
Speaker 2:Okay, nothing crazy. Bryce and I were from the same neighborhood and Amel was. She was very sweet breath of fresh air, pretty, um, not that I recall nothing crazy. But paris, paris was very um, you know, perfectionist about certain. I remember being in the studio and he's like there's just something that's not right. That's a room for that.
Speaker 1:Um, but nothing crazy okay, so after epic, what? What happened next? Would you go, you go next.
Speaker 2:Well, at Epic. That's when I'd had my son by this time and I was having issues with my son's father. It was about money. So I think I was at my desk crying and Vivian walks by and she was like why are you crying, Are you okay?
Speaker 2:I was like I told her what was happening. She was like you know what? You need your own job so you don't have to worry about whether your son's father gives the money on time or whatever. So she's like give me your resume and I'll give it to Rochelle Fields. Jocelyn Cooper is leaving Warner Chapel and opening her own company, midnight Music. So give me your resume and I'll give it to Rochelle. And that's the history.
Speaker 1:So that's when you turned from A&R into publishing.
Speaker 2:Yes, I had no idea what publishing was like that, except for what I heard from Dwayne. So I think I'd met Rochelle back then or Brenda Andrews back then, but he was like the public. Actually, I'd interviewed for another job. I'd interviewed for the MCA music publishing job Cause Tita gray, I think, was leaving. Did she work at MCA music? I had a Carol where Leon, where his wife, used to head the publishing at mca music and I interviewed with her and she didn't think I was ready. But a year later I got to.
Speaker 1:you know it was between me and francesca sparrow really yeah that's, that's your frances Sparrow so how did you get your crash crash course in publishing? Because publishing and A&R publishing and the music side in general are just so different the Donald Passman book oh so you read the book, I read the Donald Passman book and just on the job, training.
Speaker 2:But I feel like I was blessed and had good luck because they gave me sammy khan's old office. You know sammy khan.
Speaker 2:Sammy khan is a writer who wrote standards like let me see, because I always forget not take me out to the ball game, but songs like that so he was like a bro, a bro building kind of guy he was a bro building kind of guy but wrote some and they had a big um Broadway catalog and so Julie Stein, this guy, julie Stein, was still there and I only learned about these people um working there because I didn't know. But let me see.
Speaker 1:And the way you look at it for the people who are listening. The Brill Building was this building in the Times Square area. I can't remember it was in the 40s and they had all these like little offices with like pianos in them and they had all these writers that they would hire and come and all day day people would write songs, write songs, write songs, write songs. And a lot of these songs became standards and classic, like George Gershwin type records and Carole King, and these people would just pump out. That was their job to pump out songs and stuff for TV shows, for movies, obviously for records. If you look on a lot of those old records in the 50s and 60s, those are all real building records. It became this massive publishing warehouse basically.
Speaker 2:I'm looking it up. And he and Julie Stein wrote Let it Snow, let it Snow, let it Snow Damn. He wrote songs like that they go well. He discussed me that January 1993. I started that January, april of 1993, and they gave me his office, wow, wow. I think that's part of the reason why I had just a great career, a great tenure.
Speaker 1:You had good mojo coming out of that office.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and back then they gave you a great tenure. You had good mojo coming out of that office. Back then they gave you a furniture budget like go buy your own furniture for your office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's over with. That's over with.
Speaker 2:Furniture budget, parking budget and the contract. Actually, did I have a contract yet?
Speaker 1:No, but I still drove into work every day so who are some of the people you started working with when you did publishing?
Speaker 2:when I got there, before I signed anything, I worked with Barry Eastman who did all the Freddie Jackson stuff. Eddie F and Untouchables Jocelyn signed them, and also Bernard Bell who wrote all that stuff with Teddy Riley, skeph, anselm.
Speaker 1:Eric Stadler.
Speaker 2:Eric Stadler from Bomb Squad Yep, um, and then Bomb Squad Yep, and then that's all I remember. I'm sure there were more. There was also a woman who worked there for a little while named Kat Jackson.
Speaker 1:I remember Kat.
Speaker 2:Jackson, you remember Kat Jackson? Yeah. She worked for Prince's. Because Prince was published by Warner Chappell, so was Michael Jackson. At was published by Warner Chappell, so was Michael Jackson. At the time Warner Chappell had the happy birthday song before it went back into public domain.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was crazy. James Brown was there. In fact, I have a picture with James Brown Kiss me on the cheek, because he used to come up to the office. These people would come up to the office. The James Brown catalog was there, dr Dre was there, so it was an easy sell to be at Waterchapel Music. It was like one of the Rolls Royces of the music publishing business, so people were more calling you than you were calling them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a very high profile position. So that's how I got to know the attorneys, because they were calling me the attorneys and managers. They called Warner Chapel. Wow, At the time there weren't so many publishing companies as there are now.
Speaker 1:There was some big independents, but not like so did you ever get to meet Michael or Prince?
Speaker 2:I did meet Michael later.
Speaker 1:I met.
Speaker 2:Michael, me and Big John met Michael because Rodney was in the studio with him, even though Rodney had signed to EMI.
Speaker 1:Rodney Jerkins.
Speaker 2:Yes, Rodney Jerkins I was with. We were at a Jay-Z video shoot. Okay, I think Rodney called John and they were like come to the studio now. I was like, yeah, it was crazy. So we went to Sony Studios. He was there. He had a bang on his nose.
Speaker 4:He had all these like Disney.
Speaker 2:I guess he'd gone to the Disney store so he had and his kids were young so he had all these stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling and like popcorn machine and he had like the whole. You remember they had that huge allowed at Sony Studios but it was like he had like the whole. You remember they had that huge allowed at sony studios but it was like he had like I think they were separated into different rooms he had the whole thing, wow.
Speaker 2:And he had to sit down. Well, I don't heal that night. So he looked at me and john jonathan platt, who's the ceo of sony. He's a coach, you know um it. Wow, you guys are tall. John is 6'6" I was probably 6'1 in these heels. We sat down with him and he watched a Frasier Ali fight. He was a big Ali fan. He's going to sing Ali's, he's a dancer, or something like that. He kept so he's going to sing Ali's, he's a dancer, or something like that. He kept saying he just kept praising Ali. So I'm just sitting there, me and John just sitting there, like this is Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're Michael Jackson, because of all the people that I met at the time in the industry, because you meet a little bit of everybody especially. One thing I can say about Warner Chapel. I was in so many rooms more rooms than I ever would have been in working in records. They had me at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinners when they were really small. It would be in a ballroom.
Speaker 2:You could just walk up to people. I remember walking up to Diane Carroll and introducing myself. Like you would just go up to people and introduce yourself.
Speaker 1:I remember those small, small um rock and roll hall of fame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a small thing, it wasn't a you know the.
Speaker 1:Hilton hotel or something. Yeah, it was at the Hilton hotel.
Speaker 2:That and and, like the other galas, where they were much smaller then than they are now. So you really got to meet people and Water Chapel would have me in those rooms. So I've met a lot of people. Tony Bennett used to come up to the office. I've met a lot of people, but Michael Jackson is the only one I was starstruck by because I loved him since I was six. You know what I mean so.
Speaker 2:I remember calling my parents like Mom, dad. I just met Michael Jackson, like he was the only person I've ever felt like. I'm meeting.
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Speaker 1:how long did you work at Warner Chapel?
Speaker 2:About. I worked there from 1993 to 2000. I don't know, it felt like 10 years. Okay, it felt like 10 years, it was only six years from 1993 that I left.
Speaker 1:And where did you go after that?
Speaker 2:I went to Universal. Jocelyn Cooper hired me at Universal to do A&R and it was a culture shock. I left for the money. In retrospect I shouldn't have.
Speaker 1:Tell me why.
Speaker 2:Because records is a hectic job and you have like a weekly, like a weekly report card. It was just so much more pressure than publishing was.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was working at Warner Chapel spoiled me, and I was working at Warner Chapel spoiled me, and so they used to kind of they gave, they gave me autonomy at Warner Chapel Like I would go to LA and it might sound vapid but I was able to stay at like the peninsula every time Nice hotels and stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I remember the first time I went to la. I'm only 26 years old and I went to. I think it was like soul train awards or something. And um, I went to the office on santa monica and she was like, my boss was like where are you staying? I was like I'm staying at the hotel n I was so excited to stay at the Nico Nico used to be hot. She was like what, why didn't you stay at the Four Seasons of the Peninsula? I'd never stayed at the Nico again.
Speaker 1:Wow, why are you not staying at the Superfly shit? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:I was like why are you staying there? Why didn't you stay at the Four Seasons of? I was like enough said.
Speaker 1:Exactly, oh, really, okay, I think I was like that.
Speaker 2:So when I went to Universal they hired me as a VP. I thought I was just going to go to Peninsula. They were like you can't stay at the Peninsula.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was like what they were. Like you can stay at the Four Seasons, Okay.
Speaker 1:I'll slum it.
Speaker 2:They were like cause Monty and Doug stayed there, so I couldn't stay there, you know with the president and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I must say you know, before I got to university I was also married to a man in the business. So you know I say that it's a little on my own and with him and business. So you know I stayed at Pencil Low on my own and with him and it was a, you know, rude awakening to not be able to just roll like I wanted to roll.
Speaker 1:So you didn't like the record side too much.
Speaker 2:I hated it.
Speaker 1:Really, who'd you work with while you were there? What?
Speaker 2:artists DJ Rogers, that's all I can't remember. I'm sure I worked with other people, but I I like blacked out that. I'm like let me forget about that. It was. I had so much going on in my life in general when I was in universal, but I met some great people. Um, gene Riggins was running Black Music at the time. Dino DeValle, who signed Cash Money, was next door to me. Kevin. What was Kevin's last name? Kevin Hershey, kevin. He signed Nelly. So Nelly was there at the time and Lou Tucker was there at the time. That's why I met Wardell Wardell Malloy, who's at BMI now, and Lou Tucker was there at the time. Like we had you know universal.
Speaker 2:That's why I met Wardell Wardell Malloy, who's at EMI now. Wardell was my assistant and um, wow, yeah, that's some great. Wendy Washington was there at the time, jackie Reinhart, um. So I met some good people, but I didn't like working for records, working at all.
Speaker 1:So what happened after that?
Speaker 2:Um, I got let go from that and uh, then I went to EMI like a year later. I didn't like EMI.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell me about your EMI experience.
Speaker 2:Um, it was the New York office. So it's like I worked with Evan Lamberg and it was just a different. Like I said, warner Chapel really spoiled me, like I was the person in the New York office and I kind of built the R&B stuff there from you know, while with Denise Weathersby in LA, I kind of built that, like I got in there and I signed Tim and Misty and Junior Mafia and Busta Rhymes and ODB, like as far as 90 signings. I really built that when I got to EMI. It's already built, there's already a system. It was Big John and Tubby. They already had their own established way of working. I don't think there was really room for me there. I got you.
Speaker 2:Room for someone to kind of neutralize me. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so wait. So let's go back a little bit, because I didn't ask you this. So tell me about when you signed Missy, tell me the story of that, and tell me the story of when you signed Busta.
Speaker 2:Tim and Missy. You know, louise West is my girl and Louise brought me other things too, but Tim and Missy are the most notable. I also signed Anthony Hamilton. Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Through Louise. She'd been telling me about Tim for a while because they were up in Rochester working with Devante and Missy kind of started making a name for herself because she'd written for 702. And you know she did a thing with Gina Thompson, so she was already making a name for herself. But she finally brought Tim to me. It must have been 96. Darryl Williams was in my office at the time. I tease him about this to this day because Darryl Williams was an A&R guy who was huge at the time because he signed Brandy and he signed DJ. So he was in my office and she brings Tim. He was very shy at the time and she's like well, they worked, they did most of the Aaliyah album, but Barry won't give us, barry Hankerson won't give us the songs to play you sound like Barry.
Speaker 2:Right, but he was able to play Pony. For me, that's the only thing he played and I was like I'm signing him right now and I asked Darryl. I was like I'm signing him right now and I asked Darrell. I was like Darrell, what do you think? He was like, it's just all right. I was like you know what? Thank God, I trusted my own ears.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know and didn't trust you know. I trusted my own ears.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they were like almost like a package deal. And they were admin deals and no one was doing admin deals at the time. If you didn't do co-publishing deals, you weren't doing them. But Louise insisted they do admin deals.
Speaker 1:Okay, and they were uh explain to people what an admin deal is.
Speaker 2:An admin deal is you're not giving up control of your publishing, you're keeping 80, it's called an 80 20 deal, where you're not giving up control of your publishing, you're keeping 80, it's called an 80 20 deal, where you're keeping 80% of your publishing and you're paying 20 minutes, 20% for administration. Okay, so one, a chapel, would administer their publishing that's licensing and royalties and all that stuff for that fee. So there was a way that they would work. Ed pearson was the head of business business affairs at the time because there was only and I don't, I don't remember the technicality, but there was something technical that had to happen for them to be included in the billboard awards and stuff like that. But they worked it out. But people were just people talked about that for a while, like that's just an admin deal. It's just an admin deal. It was like no, it's activity. So right after I signed them, if your Girl Only came out, wow. It was like it didn't stop after that yeah, just yeah, one, one one I had terry robinson too.
Speaker 2:Terry robinson was huge wrote a lot um and I signed terry as a group with Monica. That was actually my first signing.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I signed Terry and Monica as soon as I got to Water and Chapel and I expected the album to do well, because you know I was going to sign Groove Theory. So I'm like, oh it's going to do.
Speaker 2:And the album sounded good. It wasn't like it was a bad album, but it tanked. So yeah, and that's the other good thing about publishing, you can sign something that tanks and nobody's looking at you crazy, because there are other ways for people, right, there's other ways for them to make money. So Terry calls me one day and she's like I'm writing with heavy for these kids and I'm like OK, whatever, like as long as you're writing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the kids turn out to be so for real and Candy Rain came out. That was my first top 10 pop hit and I remember being in a car service I was in Brooklyn for some reason and these kids were walking down the street. It was like 10 of them and they were all singing Candy Rain.
Speaker 1:And then you knew you had a hit.
Speaker 2:So that was my first one and my boss doesn't even realize it. I had to call him and tell him. I was like Terry Robinson has a top 10 pop hit and they were like what? And so she was like. After that it was like can't you see the total? She had a bunch of hits. Terry's like one of the most unsung songwriters to me because she's done so much, but nobody ever mentions her name. She's written a lot.
Speaker 1:Tell me the Busta story.
Speaker 2:Busta was managed by Chris and Mona, but I had an advantage because he was signed to Electra and I was with Warner chapel. So I think he got this. It was like I said, it's all so many years ago, but there was an advantage to Warner artists being signed to Warner chapel and I forget what it was. But they must an advantage to Warner artists being signed to Warner Chapel and I forget what it was but, they must must have given them a better rate, or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was Tim Mandelbaum, I think, who was the attorney.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I went through. You know the the normal negotiating and but Buster was always kind and nice and respectful but it wasn't a difficult signing. I've had some you know deals where it's like going back and forth.
Speaker 1:What was your most difficult signing?
Speaker 2:forth and and uh, what was your most difficult signing? Probably no one. That was really worth all that. I don't remember. Um, I probably went back and forth with Mac 10 a lot. Um, I don't know, stevie J might have given us a run. I signed Stevie J as well. We didn't have an issue with Junior Mafia. Okay. Because, again, they were signed to Warner. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Atlantic.
Speaker 2:They were signed to. Atlantic. Busta was signed to Elektra. Odb was signed to Elektra. Did ODB through Tim Mandelbaum as well. It was really about the relationship with the attorneys.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Tim Mandelbaum had a great relationship with Warner Chapel. I think that's why that happened. Like I said, it really made a difference that I was at that kind of company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were there.
Speaker 2:I was at a high-profile company like that. So in retrospect you know, as things got tougher for me years down the line, that was like the easiest success I ever had.
Speaker 1:So tell me one without incriminating people. Tell me one spicy. I won't say crazy, I'll say spicy Warner Chappell story. Oh, and then one spicy story from that era. Spicy. What do you mean?
Speaker 1:You know, like yo, we was out at this thing and this is something got crazy, or blah, blah, blah. You know, again, not without I, you know, ruin somebody's life. I'm not saying gossip people, just kind of. You know, it was so much happening during that era, especially, like you said, we're going out so much and we're seeing so many people and we're traveling and so you kind of just kind of see stuff, you know um, I won't call this story spicy, but it's funny because John Tito, my old boss, recently passed away. Okay.
Speaker 2:And he was the easiest boss to work for because we were both late all the time. I get it. John Tito was later than me. He was like a late guy. We were both late people but we stayed late and we did a lot of deals together.
Speaker 2:He was really good at his job, he was a charmer. We used to have to go to Broadway events because, like I said, julie Simon did the live or he just passed away too. I said Julie, julie Simon's either alive or he just passed away too. But there were. There was a Broadway, something in his honor that we had that everybody from Warner Chapel had to go to. So we're there in the audience and people are coming on the stage, coming up on the stage that are people going crazy for, crazy for, and we don't know who they are. Sorry, we're like who are these people? The only people we knew were who was George Clooney's aunt.
Speaker 1:Rosemary Clooney.
Speaker 2:Rosemary Clooney. I think Taylor Dane must have done something on broadway back then. They were like two tony randall was still alive. He was there. Everyone else that. They were like doing standing ovations for going crazy. We were like, who are these people? So john whispers over to me, he leans over with me, he's. This is what it feels like to be on another planet. I thought it was so funny at the time. You had to be there. He was a great boss. We were both Godfather fans. Now they just had the 50th anniversary. For the 25th anniversary they were having a special showing at the Ziegfeld Theater, which is now Ballroom, but it was right around the corner because we were at 1290, so we took off for lunch and went to go see the Godfather. He was our kind of boss that's dope I just have good memories, nothing really scandalous, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there were things that happened, but nothing scandalous. I remember when we had a company meeting in Boca and they were talking about the internet the internet like it really, the internet wasn't the thing yet. That's how long ago this was, and they would like trying to kill the Napster guy, you know. And I remember them saying like we had to do something because it's going to be like the wild, wild West. And then a few years later, in a short period, it changed everything.
Speaker 1:I always say that was one of the music businesses Worst um errors is, instead change everything. I always say that was one of the music business's worst errors is, instead of trying to kill Nick said Napster, sean Fanning and those guys, I think Sean Parker too.
Speaker 2:It was Sean.
Speaker 1:They should have put him on the first thing, smoking Yep and brought him to the office. Like he's on to something. What are y'all guys doing?
Speaker 2:Let's figure this out and incorporate.
Speaker 1:You Joined the first thing, smoking Yep, and walked him to the office Like he's on to something. Yeah, yeah, what are y'all guys doing? Let's, let's figure this out and, you know, incorporate you into what we're doing. But, like you said, the, the music business has a tendency to try to kill new things as progressive as it's supposed to be them, you know.
Speaker 2:Big time. This is just a short few years later. It blew up everything. It disrupted the music business. Yeah, I remember at the time I guess it was like 99, 2000. Before then record sales were 80% of a publishing company's revenue, like CD sales, and after that no CD sale. It was like it was a terrible time. You remember it was everybody. It's a bunch of layoffs and it really disrupted the industry.
Speaker 1:Really did Like you said it was. It was different because people were buying hard products CDs and vinyl sometimes and going to the store and all the ancillary businesses around it, like you know, the truckers bringing the stuff in and the manufacturers and the arts, art people and it killed all that stuff, you know.
Speaker 2:All of it. And what's so crazy is back then you would buy a CD and you owned it. Now we don't own any music.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You know you buy a DVD, you own that movie. Now, we don't own any music. You buy a DVD, you own that movie. Now, we don't own anything. You have more of it, but we don't own anything.
Speaker 1:We don't have anything you can grab in your hand and say this is mine. What was your last stop?
Speaker 2:My last stop was EMI. Then I tried management and managing producers and stuff. I worked with Shea Taylor, my cousin, for a while, who later worked with Beyonce, and I hated that too. I didn't like being on the other side of the desk.
Speaker 1:Chasing people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just like I didn't even know how to do that. Honestly, I got when it came down to that. I was like this I guess this isn't for me anymore, because I don't even know how to chase people down and to kiss ass and all the stuff that managers have to do. Yeah, in the beginning, like if you have a huge artist, you're, you're, you know people kissing your ass, but if you have a an artist that you're trying to get off the ground or trying to, it's a terrible position to be in.
Speaker 2:Good luck you know yeah. I didn't like not being like I was a check writer before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not on the other side.
Speaker 2:People respected me in a different way because you know, and then I hear, you know, I heard horror stories later down the line of people who were not in my position and had to be on the other side. And you know, you know people just being disrespectful, yeah.
Speaker 1:People you thought you was cool with all of a sudden they tripping you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I didn't like, I didn't like it. So if I don't like something, I don't excel in it. Some people they can really excel in something just from doing it. I'm not one of those people. I have to like it or love it, be passionate. Yeah, I'm always blessed in doing things that I really love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me about your pivot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell me about your pivot. Well, I don't even like to call it a pivot, because it took a long time for me to get to that pivot. It's like it was like a long windy road. It was like it wasn't like a pivot, like that it was you know yeah.
Speaker 2:But, you know, I kept, even though I didn't like the business anymore. It was all I knew my identity was being, you know, angelique Miles, music publisher, who had all this pedigree from all the successful signings I had. So I still tried to do it and get a job in a building, but all the doors were closed to me and I still couldn't understand it because, like I said, because of my pedigree, all the people I knew, I knew, you know, people who were running shit at the time, you know and still couldn't get in, couldn't get back in, couldn't get back in.
Speaker 2:So you know that's when the predators come out to people coming to you saying you know you're going to have this budget soon. We like to bring you in to this. You know I had at least five people come bullshit me with false promises and wanting you to do some work without a budget. I'm like, how about you work out that budget part? And then you know, so it was a lot of that and a lot of disappointments. A lot of you know people you think you know not taking your calls anymore, people that you know you've had, you know their families and you spent time with them. But you know people that were friends of the job. Not really, that was a hard pill to swallow. Like, these people aren't my friends. These people were friends of the job. So there was a lot of that.
Speaker 2:So you know, money was an issue, of course. So I had to do other things. I got my real estate license, I got my insurance license, I tried to get jobs in other areas of entertainment. Nothing would pan out, for whatever reason. And I remember the last time someone, last time these guys came to me and were like we have this budget of this, we just have to deal with this and we want to bring you on. It was like it was they sent me a contract and everything, but of course it fell through because they were full of shit. So I was like that was the last straw for me.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, self, what do you want to wake up and do every day? Because I'm like I might as well start at the bottom, because whatever I do next, it might as well be something I love, because I'm starting at the bottom, whatever I do next. And I must say and go back and say like during that time when I wasn't working, I was getting up every day and working out Because it was the only thing I could control. I couldn't control when such and such called me back. I couldn't control anything else, but I could control my body. I could control what I was eating. At the time I was, you know, maturing, my body was maturing. I was like I'm not going out like this. I was like I'm already feeling down and out. I'm not going to look down and out. If I look down and out, that would just take me down, it's over.
Speaker 2:It's over and I did have some dark thoughts back then. It's a very isolating period for me.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:Because you know everybody else is going on with their lives, they're traveling and, you know, still doing the things I used to do. I couldn't do any of it.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do any of it. I couldn't. I couldn't pay my bills. You know, I couldn't do any of the things and it went on for a much longer time than I thought it would of the things. And it went on for a much longer time than I thought it would, but in the midst of it I was still doing some things, I was still being invited to certain things, but I took odd jobs just to be able to work out, like, okay, I'm going to go work at a bar studio so I can take free bar classes and still be in the city and get some energy. So, anyway, I'm going through this and I finally, you know, I caught on to. Now what happened. I started doing CrossFit because I'd gone to the doctor and up until that point, I'd only weighed under 150 pounds. At five, nine, I go to the doctor and I was like 160 pounds. I was like what? So I started doing CrossFit. I was like I have to do something this. So I started, um, posting my workouts before Instagram. It was like Twitter, facebook.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was just like, and people, it started resonating with people. They were like you know what Cause? We were on our forties at the time and it was like I should get up and work out too. You motivated me to work out today. People started approaching me on the street Like, oh, I follow you. I had like maybe 2,500 followers at the time, I remember. And this young lady approached me and she was like I follow you and I love what you're doing. I was like you know, maybe I'm on to something. Instagram wasn't a thing yet, but when I got on Instagram, I, you know, post my workouts. All my friends were like why are you posting the food? Why do you keep taking selfies?
Speaker 1:Because nobody knew what you were doing Nobody understood what I was doing. Yeah, you were ahead of the curve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just like you know, whatever I'm doing, I saw people were making money. I didn't know how they were making money. I was like I know there's a way for me to make money doing this. I don't know how yet, but I guess I'll figure it out. And before long, a brand came to me and they sent me a contract and they were like we'd like you to post this for this amount of money. And I was like, oh, this is how people are making money on it. So you know it's, it's only trickled in for a little while and then, uh, right before the pandemic, it's just started pouring in.
Speaker 1:Started to take off.
Speaker 2:All the brand partnerships started pouring in, started to take off. All the brand partnerships started pouring in.
Speaker 1:So you were an early health influencer.
Speaker 2:Fitness.
Speaker 1:It started out as fitness. Did you realize you were an influencer? You were just kind of like, oh, I'm an influencer. I didn't even realize what I was doing.
Speaker 2:It wasn't called influencing, then I don't know what it was called.
Speaker 2:What was it called? I don't know if that was called anything, but I was just like I just want to be able to work out and look good and maybe practice some other forms of self-care and share it with people. At the time I thought I was like I'm just going to take classes all over the city fitness classes and share with my followers. Maybe they want to take you know, they want to do what I'm doing. But then it turned out to be like Dove and L'Oreal and all kinds of people started approaching me about brand partnerships.
Speaker 1:So it's expanded. How are they approaching you? Are they hitting you in the DMs Like L'Oreal will just pop up. Like I said, dove will just pop up in your DM and be like yo, we want to.
Speaker 2:No, they email me. I have my email address.
Speaker 1:Oh, email okay.
Speaker 2:And nowadays you can just press like everybody's email, especially if you have a professional page. There's an email tab in your profile that people hit. So that's how they were reaching me. That people hit, so that's how they were reaching me. Wow, reaching me directly. And yeah, I just had so many opportunities. It was overwhelming that I had to hire some, you know, hire help yeah. Yeah, so, and I was like to get paid to be myself is the ultimate question yeah, it's a blessing.
Speaker 2:Like I just had a panel the other day and I'm like I don't even have to prep for this because I'm just talking about me. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're just talking about yourself. You know, in retrospect I look at things like I wasn't supposed to be in the music industry or in entertainment anymore. I'm supposed to be doing what I'm doing now and something I enjoy, something that's easy to do, because I really do get up every day and work out, and I like beauty products, I like skincare products, I like to dress up, I like to dress up, I like to go out All the things that you know over 50, now it's an over 50 thing that people are interested in.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing that you kind of fell into this, you know, because he was in a dark place, it turned out to be the biggest blessing. Not the darkness of it, but just having to move on turned out to be this big blessing.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, I could do this until the wheels fall off.
Speaker 1:You could be 80 years old still. You should work out somewhat at 80 years old. If you're here, if you can, there's a woman.
Speaker 2:Her name is Train With Joan. She's in her 70s. She's amazing. She has millions of followers because she changed her life around through weight training. I'm going to be doing this until I can't do it anymore. That's good. The older I get, the more value it has. Yeah, yeah, if you look a certain way, you take care of yourself a certain way, because I'm like coming up on 60 now, next year, not this year, but yeah, it's like, yeah, I'm looking right now at all these. I have to sift through all the beauty products and skin care products people send me and post them and I love it. How is your skin like that?
Speaker 1:because I use amazing products top notch products that I get for free. You know what I'm saying. You get paid to. I use amazing products, top-notch products that I get for free. You know what I'm saying? Well, not for free. You get paid to use them, which is even better.
Speaker 2:It's the stuff, like I said, I would have been doing, no matter what my profession. When I was in music and stuff, I was working out, I was doing Lottie Burke method and I was going to get facials at Mario Badescu. I was working out, I was doing Lottie Burke method and I was going to get facials at Mario Badescu. You know I was trying different diets Ayurvedic diet, I was doing vegan stuff. Before it was a vegan thing. I have an autoimmune condition called psoriasis. So I've always tried to heal myself and to try certain things. So it's always been a passion of mine heal myself and do try certain things. So it's always, always been a passion of mine. And to get to, to have the opportunity to make a living doing it is huge. I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1:So do you, do you participate in like beauty con and all that type of stuff? Or or or no?
Speaker 2:I haven't done beauty con. Okay, Um, if they invited me I would come, but uh, the beauty stuff is just like. I'm not a big makeup person. Let me tell you, I'm just getting into the makeup part of it because I get sent so much. I used to be that person who's like I'm never wearing makeup to the gym. Now I wear a little bit of makeup to the gym because the makeup is just sitting here I'm like let me use this makeup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just taking a look, and plus I'm always filming my workout, so it makes sense, yeah yeah, yeah it makes sense. Um, but not not anything crazy, but um. So I've really finally gotten into learning how to do makeup, and it's always a new thing or new um way of doing things. I'm always practicing.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting how, with social media, I don't know fairly recently, I don't know how many years how beauty and fashion and styling and all that have just become massive. I think, as of now, culminating with the last Met Gala, yeah, like that, which is, you know, the biggest met gala um media wise, and they've this that the last, the met gala two days ago, raised the most money they've ever raised yeah, which is crazy. So it's like the culmination of, uh, years ago, these um be a bunch of kids, if you want, on a Saturday afternoon, there would be a bunch of kids on what's called Lower Broadway, which is like Broadway, right below Houston. It was like all these kids just out there Every Saturday afternoon. Obviously it wasn't raining or something.
Speaker 1:It was a ton of kids wearing this clothes and wearing this and that they would just be out there taking pictures of each other. Those kids all, like you know, wearing you know this clothes and wearing this and that, and they would just be out there taking pictures of each other. And those kids are like the kids now, like that was A$AP Rocky and that was Virgil and that was Luca, the kid that was in Grown-ish Luca I forget his last name now. But all these kids now, they're now like at the peak of it. All those kids, those people became tastemakers back then.
Speaker 1:They were called tastemakers. And they took it and ran with it and to the point where you know, tiana Taylor, all those kids was out there. If you had somebody had a video, you'd see all those kids they're like you know, back then were young and now look at them. They're at at the Met Gala raising the most money ever.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful sight to see, and the fact that you can you know, because at the time I started getting into it, I was probably one of the few people my age doing it.
Speaker 2:And now there's so many women over 50 that are not playing out here. They are doing a damn thing. So actually it's changed a little bit for me because I didn't get into the reels thing as quickly, because I was used to taking a couple pictures, writing a caption. Now it's all about this whole production. It's always evolving, so you've got to stay with the when do you see it going next? Yeah, it's hard to see, because what works for one person may not work for someone else.
Speaker 1:True.
Speaker 2:You know I've seen people grow on TikTok and Instagram in a year more than I've grown in five, but that what they do wouldn't work, necessarily work for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I like you know, to stay at the pace I'm at and I'm able to I was just talking about this on the panel I have like one hundred twenty five thousand followers on Instagram, which is not a big huge number. Which is not a big huge number. I'm slow to TikTok. I'm growing there but I know I have to do better across different platforms. But it's a lot of work I'm like, but I'm able to interact with my followers. Like I answer every DM, I answer every comment my followers. Like I answer every DM, I answer every comment questions. I try to answer everything in that. So I like kind of like the number I'm at, so I'm able to do that still and stay authentic.
Speaker 1:See, I think, I think again I'm. I'm talking shit, cause I'm no social media expert, but I think somebody like you, somebody might have a million followers, but if you look at the analytics and all that stuff, you probably have much better engagement.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Somebody might have two million followers, but not really. When they post something, they only get like a few hits, whereas when you post something, you get more hits because you engage with your people and they know like oh, and you answer the DMs, which makes them keep coming back.
Speaker 2:Yes, and there's value in that.
Speaker 1:There's much. Yeah, because you can you. I'd rather somebody like yourself. I'd rather somebody like yourself try to sell my product than somebody who has 2 million followers but doesn't really talk to the people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think when you get to those numbers, it's good for brand awareness, but for actual usage of the product, people like macro and micro influences with similar numbers to mine, I think, do better. There are people who have less followers than I do probably work more than I do. It's it's. It's all on who the brand thinks. You know, it's all on brand connection, who they want.
Speaker 1:So what's next for you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing more things outside of social media.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm doing a retreat next year, okay, uh, in Thailand. Oh, okay, it's a. It's a biohacking longevity, but also restoration. Okay, she, for women over 50. Okay, things are different for us. You know, as much as I'd like to include, um, my younger sisters, it's just really different for us. As much as I'd like to include my younger sisters, it's just really different for women over 50. We're dealing with different things going on in our bodies, in our lives. We're dealing with elderly parents and kids.
Speaker 1:It's just different at this age, yeah, different from a 25-year-old girl that's out here popping. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not that we want to go to probably be in bed by nine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 2:Just after laying out in the sun all day. Yeah, I'm tired.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bed, I'm going to watch.
Speaker 2:Netflix Exactly, and the phone is so close to the net Exactly and the following is a question.
Speaker 1:That Exactly you know. Thank you, Angelique.
Speaker 2:Thank you. This is great. You know, I love you Jeff.
Speaker 1:I love you too. You can catch Mixed and Mastered on Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheart or wherever.
