This year marks the 10th anniversary of Career Mastered Magazine, which inspires us to reflect on exactly what it took to reach this important milestone. While there are so many factors that came into play, if we could summarize, what did it all boil down to in the end? Resilience.
Having a long life in anything whether it be in health, marriage, or career requires a certain level of elasticity and resiliency to quickly recover in the face of challenge.
Holly Robinson Peete— the actor, singer, author, producer and philanthropist most known for her roles on 21 Jump Street, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, and For Your Love, humanitarianism through her nonprofit the HollyRod Foundation, and time spent as one of the original co-hosts of the CBS Daytime talk show The Talk—is no stranger to the art of longevity and resiliency.
Holly landed her first acting role at just 5 years old with a small appearance on Sesame Street, where her father was a writer and producer “who just kind of ended up saving the day and becoming Gordon on Sesame Street when the other actor fell through.” This was in 1969 when the iconic children’s program was just kicking off. Holly’s parents were resistant to the idea of her becoming an actor, and when given the chance, she blew the one line she was given on Sesame Street by saying “Hi daddy” instead of “Hi, Gordon”. Since then, Holly’s resiliency has cemented her a legacy in the entertainment industry with a 40-year journey that’s earned her a legendary Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame, an NAACP Image Award, and long-lasting reputation of honor, class, professionalism, and grace.
With a high-level career and marriage spanning across the decades, there’s a lot we can all learn from Holly and her ability to tap into permanence and stability while maintaining an admirable reputation.
We had the chance to dive deep with Holly, who revealed her “secret” to resiliency and longevity, which you can use to develop lasting power in areas of your own life.
Q: What were the early days like in the pursuit of getting your acting dream off the ground before you caught your “big break”? (i.e. work ethic, crafting your skills, learning the industry, rookie mistakes, etc.) What did you learn about yourself?
After Sesame Street, my parents did everything they could to keep me from being a child actor because they knew that wasn’t a great environment to raise a kid in. But after I moved to California with my mother, after my parents split up, she became a talent manager and every now and then there would be parts that she thought I might be able to do and I would just do them casually. It really wasn’t until I graduated from college and got 21 Jump Street that I really would’ve considered myself an actor. I loved singing as well so I tried to nurture that and make that a career but the acting break came first. I kind of learned on the job. It was such a crazy time. Here you had a brand new, unknown, Johnny Depp, and other actors working in Canada on a show, which started and kicked off a whole network—the Fox Network. It was a crazy time. So I kind of studied on the job and I think thatreally helped me because it made me become a less robotic actor and more natural authentic acting style came about organically.
Q: What has been your Career Mastered Moment?
I guess the Hollywood star would be my career mastered moment because it really brought together all of the people who helped me get this far. It was a moment where I really reflected how hard I worked and how much time and energy I put into my acting career. For the foundation and my philanthropic career, I’d have to say the moment was when Muhammad Ali showed up in 2002 to our gala and literally saved our foundation, which was about to shut down due to lack of funding. When he showed up that day, the press came, the sponsors and donors came and we have not looked back.
Q: Not only have you seen longevity/resiliency in the TV and film industry, you’ve also seen longevity in your marriage with the two of you being together for nearly 30 years. What would you say is working for you? What keeps you “in the game”/ keeps you going?
The biggest thing for me is the fact that Rodney agreed to go to therapy before we even got married. Just the idea of talking to an objective thirdparty is something that most men can be really scared of, especially black men in my experience. Going to therapy is not something that we really do with black families. But Rodney was willing to when things got rocky. And where we live, Los Angeles, there is a very, very high divorce rate, especially in the sports and entertainment field. So we have definitely worked through some issues over the decades. But I guess at the end of the day we never gave up on each other.
Q: We know that love is a very personal matter (and so are health diagnoses like Parkinson’s and autism), yet these are all areas we see you’ve become an advocate for over the years, especially with the work of the HollyRod Foundation. First, I want to commend you for being courageous enough to be vulnerable and spread awareness with your foundation. And I want to ask you, why is it important for you to use your platform to talk about personal topics like this? Is it ever hard to have to navigate personal matters like love and health conditions in the public eye?
When we first got the diagnosis for my dad’s Parkinson’s disease, my brother and I were just absolutely devastated. We didn’t know what it was. It was the 80s. There was no Google. There was no Michael J. Fox or Muhammad Ali to shine the light. We were just devastated and we didn’t know what to do so we spent the first 10 years dealing with it privately. But then somehow, I mentioned it in an interview and the next thing I knew I was getting letters from other families whose loved ones were diagnosed and they were lost and had no information, no resources and were looking for somebody to shine the light for them. So that’s when we started our advocacy for Parkinson’s. Fast forward many years later when we got the diagnosis of autism for our son that was also a really difficult moment and then we were not ready at the time of diagnosis to have a public conversation. It took about eight or nine years before we were ready. But we saw immediately what a difference it made when we shared our journey. When we got the diagnosis of autism, we didn’t see celebrities or people with platforms talking about it, and it made it harder. So after much discussion, we decided we would take on that role as a family to share the stories. We are so glad that we did. Our advocacy has brought us so much personal joy and we’re so grateful for the blessings that the foundation has brought us still helping others.
Q: What would you say is the key to resilience? Longevity?
I think the key to resilience and longevity is belief in yourself that you will overcome anything. That you can be down, but you can continue if you dig deep and keep it moving. I also feel like the way you treat others comes back to you. Longevity is something that doesn’t happen for no reason. Especially in show-business when you work on a project and a crew works with you and you’re pleasant to be around and you’re kind and easy to work with, they take that onto the next project. “Oh, I just worked with Holly. She was so much fun and she always called me by name and said good morning.” It sounds like a small thing, but when you consistently do that, you develop a reputation of being someone who is very sweet. Oftentimes we treat people who have positions blow us in a way that is unnecessarily disrespectful and the way you treat those people will come back to you. I really firmly believe that I have been able to carve out a career in this business for 40 years because people want to work with me, not just tolerate me. You can’t have resilience or longevity in anything in life without having heart, grit, and being a continuous learner, which are all qualities Holly Robinson Peete surely has no shortage of.. In fact, part of why Holly has had staying power could be because she is someone who truly understands and embraces the power of philanthropy by really fighting hard to give back to those who really needed a lift. Also, not many people know that Holly is also fluent in French (what she majored in college) and believes that understanding other cultures is a key to coexisting with others and world peace. As far as what’s next? Holly is currently working on a memoir, developing a couple of TV shows, and gearing up for season two of Queens Court–a show on Peacock she hosts with her husband. The HollyRod Foundation is also set to host its big fundraiser in July. To help support programs for families impacted by autism and Parkinson’s disease or to learn more about the HollyRod Foundation, you can visit hollyrod.org to find out how you can get involved.
Jasmine Ball is a wife, mom, award-winning journalist, and founder of BTM Writing Services. Throughout her career, she’s been helping companies all over the world get confidence over their content and grow their businesses. With God at the center, Jasmine’s life mission is to use her gift to connect people to resources that will help them live more informed, inspired, and overall better lives.
