We were lucky to catch up with Hope Schwing recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Hope, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I grew up in a very small town in central Minnesota. Everyone knows everyone. We even had “drive your tractor to school” day believe it or not. I lived within a 30 mile radius of my hometown until I was 23 years old. I had never lived in a city with more than 5,000 people. I realized, with the help of my agency, that if I wanted to be as successful as I can be, I needed to move. The small town, middle-of-nowhere vibe wasn’t cutting it for me personally and for business reasons. I was missing out on huge opportunities because I was so far away from the heart of social media, Los Angeles. It took me a few years to finally bite the bullet and move out of MN. My whole family lives in MN, and my family is the most important thing to me. Leaving them felt like my heart was literally ripped out of my body, but I knew they wanted me to make the most of my life. So, they understood that this was best for me. In January 2021, I started my LONG drive from MN to Los Angeles. It took me over 30 hours to drive there. I was absolutely terrified when I saw more than 4 lanes of traffic, and a speed limit sign faster than 70 mph. It was a whole new world, but I was ready for it even though I was scared as heck. It has been almost two years since my move to California, and I know for a fact that this was the best decision I could have made for myself. Although risky, I have no regrets. I needed to be thrown out of my comfort zone- I was getting too content and stagnant in MN. Moving has pushed me to become a harder worker and a more determined individual. I see something I want, I go get it. I don’t think that would have happened had I not moved. It is a scary thing to do, moving across the country away from your family, but I am thriving! Totally worth the risk.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I sort of fell into this industry of content creation. I got the musical.ly app bevause no one from my highschool had it and I did not want annyone to see my hula hoop dance videos. I got teased quite a bit for it, but I still wanted to do it. So, I downloaded the app in hopes that no one would see my videos – but I went viral. It was awesome. I transitioned from hula hoop dancing to comedy to lifestyle to relatable humor. I flip around a lot. I am most proud of how consistent I am in creating loads of content every day. I post well over 150 times a day on snapchat all while posting tiktoks, reels, shorts etc. I am a waterfall of content. Im able to provide that much content simply because i adore making it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think best example of my resilience is the fact that I have been making content since 2016. Staying on top of trends, creativity and consistently posting for over 7 years is crazy – in a good way… I think? Haha. Anyway, it is working for me. I really REALLY hate losing, and I am a very competitive person. I think that has a lot to do with me being a resilient individual. Whenever I wanna do something, I do it – obviously I have my days where I lag and want to lay in bed all day and do nothing, but I am human. Thatll happen. But I would say I am pretty on top of my game majority of the time.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
In my view, I think society can do creatives a huge favor by letting creatives be creative. Many times, companies come to creatives with a set of guidelines for a promotion and an entire script. Those types of deals dont work most of the time. Creatives have gather millions of people that like their content, so it is wise to let creatives do what they feel their audience would absorb best.
Contact Info:
- Instagram:@hope.schwing
- Facebook: Hope Schwing
- Youtube: Hope Schwing
- Other: Snapchat: HopeSchwing
Image Credits
IG: juleztookthis