Meet Renika McQueen-Echols | Producer, Director, Motivational Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Renika McQueen-Echols and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Renika, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
At first I was afraid because I’d work for someone else for seventeen years. I knew that with my previous career I had stability, a regular paycheck coming in, health insurance and other benefits that the State of Michigan provided. I spent 8, 12 and sometime’s sixteen hours a day at work. Once I realized my passion for film and I decided I wanted to pursue that more, I came up with a plan. I figured if I could give someone else seventeen years of my life, I could take a chance on myself. It was faith over fear.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
My passion is storytelling and filmmaking, just bringing my thoughts to life and sharing them with the world right now. I think what sets me apart from others is just the fact that I am ME. God gave ME my vision and it may not be the same as others. I thrive on love and pain. Those are my strengths and my weaknesses. I am most proud of the fact that I chose faith in myself over fear. A lot of people aren’t brave enough to do that. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this interview today. God randomly giving me creative visions just from people watching, listening to music or allowing myself to feel my emotions excites me because I know there’s a great story coming out of it. I’m able to pursue my dreams today because I took a chance on myself and walked away from a seventeen year career that I also loved, with Corrections. It was definitely not an easy decision to make. When I realized that I was going to walk away from my previous career and dive into filmmaking whole heartedly, I cried my eyes out one Sunday morning as I laid in the bed with my husband. I was grieving. It was very scary. I thought about my job for a while after quitting and battled with myself about if I was really capable of doing film for good. Over time, I began reminding myself that I had prayed for this for years and God answered my prayers. I felt like I was being ungrateful by continuously thinking about my past career. One day I just told myself to let it go and over time, the thoughts just kind of faded away. I learned a few lessons along the way. Mistakes are good as long as you learn from them, do good business, be a man or woman of your word and keep your name in good standing. All of those things will bring you blessings in business. I learned all blessings in business may not be monetary. It could be someone recommending your business to someone else or the way someone supports you and so many other things. I want the world to know that I love what I do and I want them to love my work as well. I know that I can’t please everybody but the audience that God has chosen for me, I want to make them happy, sad, mad, stronger and much more through my story telling. If I can cause people to feel some deep emotions after watching my films, I’ve done what I set out to do and I consider that to be a job well done.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting Atlanta and I wanted to show her to a good time I’d take her to Rick Ross house (The Promise Land). We’d go swimming and hang out by the pool, check out the animals and whatever else we were allowed to do. I’d love to visit the Aquarium, eat at Sun Dial Restaurant Bar because of the beautiful view. We’d go to Six Flags and hit a few clubs. We would definitely hit Lenox Square mall and do some shopping. For myself, I’d definitely go to Tyler Perry Studio’s for a tour and also visit C & C studios in Morrow. I’ve been there before but because I think the young lady is so dope for opening her own studio at such a young age, I would definitely go again to see if she’s added anything new. I was very impressed.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
If there is anybody that deserves credit and recognition in my story, it would be Kamal Smith. He has been my teacher, my friend turned brother throughout this whole process. If there was something I needed to know, I called Kamal. If I needed reassurance, I called Kamal. He prays with me. He prays for me. He hasn’t left me thus far and I am grateful for our relationship.

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