Sharda James

My ultimate dream career is broadcasting; specifically, I would love to be a daytime television talk show host. It’s crazy to think this is my dream career, because this hasn’t always been my passion. Somehow, I always found myself watching them and pretending to be to a host interviewing my favorite celebrities in my head.

I love everything about celebrity gossip and pop culture. Someone I really admire is Wendy Williams. She originally started in radio, then, eventually it was on to having her own talk show, “The Wendy Williams show.” Wendy Williams also went to college and was a communications major. I love how opinionated she is and never apologizes for how she feels. The best piece of advice I’ve heard her say about trying to figure out your craft, is that starting in radio is good practice. On the radio you’re talking non-stop for approximately four hours as opposed to television where most shows are about an hour. Since radio isn’t visual it really gives you a chance to paint the imagery for whatever story you’re portraying to your audience. It wasn’t always easy for Wendy. Considering she was so opinionated, a lot of people thought she would never be successful in this field of work. One thing I’ve definitely taken away from her is to “Live Your Truth”, meaning to own your flaws and always be yourself, because people gravitate to authenticity. Getting into entertainment isn’t the easiest thing. There are so many obstacles that you have to overcome, and you need to know how to take criticism whether good or bad.

Oprah Winfrey would definitely have to be a huge inspiration. She was actually one of the first hosts I ever started watching. One of the things I really admire about her is the fact that she isn’t afraid to ask the obvious questions and to get personal. She isn’t afraid to be vulnerable. I love how comfortable she is able to make her guests feel. That is probably the reason they feel more than comfortable talking to her. Other than focusing on celebrity gossip, I would also like to interview legendary people and have those extremely personal interviews.

Something that I admire about both of them is the fact that they remained themselves.  Taking risks isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes the biggest thing that you were afraid of is the very thing that will produce your biggest accomplishment. I’ve learned to not listen to what people have to say about you. If you have a dream go after it. However to accomplish your goals you first need to make a decision, what is it that you want out of life? The second thing is to have a positive mindset. Your thoughts become things spoken into existence. There’s a reason why your parents have told you your whole life that “you can do anything you set your mind to,” because the mind is the most powerful tool we have as humans. The third thing is to believe in yourself, because if you don’t who will? The last but certainly not the least you have to put in the work. You can’t sit around praying or wishing for things to magically happen if you’re not doing anything to deserve it. We have the same 24 hours in a day as some of the biggest celebrities, but it’s your choice of what you decide to do with them. When it’s all said and done, I hope to be able to one-day live in California or New York as a successful daytime talk show host. However, at the end of the day I hope to make a difference in television.