Meet Angela Hilario

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angela Hilario. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angela below.

Angela, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think resilience is something you develop overtime. With each passing challenge, you learn how to pick yourself back up, re-assess, and get back in the game. There is, however, a piece of advice a mentor gave me years ago, when I was in my early twenties and just started a really demanding job. He asked me about my family and for some reason I talked about my Lolo (my paternal grandfather) and how during World War 2 he had survived the Bataan Death March. After hearing that story, my mentor said to me, “So always remember: Angela has survivor genes.” It was simple advice, but one I’ll never forget. Life gets hard, trying to go after big dreams will inevitably be hard, but if you want to live a life unscathed then do nothing. I believe a main reason why I’ve developed resilience is because I never gave up. I have survivor genes.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

By day I work as a Behavior Analyst, but by night/early morning/weekends I am the founder of media company Hollis House, LLC. I started Hollis House back in 2019 with the intention of publishing books under my various pen names; a “house” for all of my stories, if you will. It has since expanded into a company that also produces podcasts and films.

Our first feature film, QUARANTINE, ACTUALLY won Best First Feature at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival in 2022. Currently, I am in pre-production with my first short film entitled SOFTLY, WITH FEELING about a sheltered woman who deals with the unexpected guests her domineering husband invites to dinner. I like to consider this short film as an intro to the kind of filmmaker I want to be and the horror/thriller genre that I want to explore.

I am also super proud of Hollis House’s original podcast KWENTO-KWENTO PODCAST. I, along with my co-hosts Kuya Paul “KP,” Tessa Medina, and Edwin Diagon, share anecdotes about being in the entertainment industry, general life musings, and also get the chance to meet other amazing Filipino-American from all walks of life. A recent guest we had on the podcast is actor Don Darryl Rivera, who originated the role of Iago on Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway. We even got to see him perform which was an incredible day. I’m excited to see KWENTO-KWENTO grow, but I also just feel so blessed to be able to hold this space with my friends where we highlight Fil-Am culture and the people!

But the heart of Hollis House will always remain amongst books. My debut novel KALEIDOSCOPE’S LIGHT is the first Hollis House publication and I am currently working on my sophomore book. Without giving away too much, it takes place in an alternate society where death is celebrated rather than mourned and ballerinas are revered like gods. I also had the pleasure of publishing Marisa Kristine Hernandez’s debut picture book GRANDPA’S OUR HERO and Rishire Young’s debut YA novel SONATA, which you can find everywhere books are sold online. The next book Hollis House is publishing is a short story collection from Sidorela Lleshi.

Overall, with Hollis House, I just want to make good stories. With the mainstream industry nowadays, good stories are often overlooked because they aren’t produced by affluent white men with famous parents. But I think more and more POC artists are taking the reigns on their own accord, and producing their own work, and that is a movement I’m empowered to be a part of!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Autonomy, humility, and being a “generalist.” Autonomy because you want to be in a position where you are making the decisions – but with that, you must be making “informed” decisions. There is a point where you should be seeking out mentorship, advice, and help but at the end of the day, you are the one making the decisions and choices for your career. Be confident in those decisions you are making for yourself and your business. Humility because no one likes working with someone who’s stubborn and arrogant. Many careers are collaborative ones, and there is rarely a job where you’ll be by yourself 100% of the time with no human interaction whatsoever. Especially if you will be working in a creative field, you must learn how to work with other people, and a major part of that is being humble. And finally, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be a generalist. Nowadays, people like to put an emphasis on being a specialist, and no one likes a Jack of All Trades. But I beg to differ: learning a vast array of skills will not only empower you but it’ll make you indispensable. Sure, seek out help from experts, but you’ll have a more rich experience when you become resourceful and take on various tasks yourself.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

That’s a great question and one that I think about often. There are times when I wonder if I had just hone in on one skill and dedicate my entire life to this one thing then maybe life would be a lot simpler and easier. But then I realize that sharpening one strength is actually not realistic. For example, writing is a tremendous muscle that needs to be practiced every day and with care; but even writers can’t just be writers. Writers must learn how to also be editors and copywriters. They need to learn marketing skills (whether you self-publish or traditionally publish, you must still know how to sell your book!), design skills and what cover to choose to make your book stand out from the rest. You need interpersonal skills because you will be collaborating with numerous people, talking to readers, and the list goes on and on. So, yes, while each and every one of us has strengths, we have a better chance at success if we also focus on being well-rounded individuals.

Plus, life is just more interesting if we love and learn many things!

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Angela Hilario

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