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Before taking the stage, Yee sat down with Blavity to discuss how she’s been thriving with her nationally syndicated show Way Up With Angela Yee, navigating media as a woman of color and what she enjoys outside of entertainment.

Early in Yee’s career, she had the opportunity to do work that was always tied to music, eventually leading to her radio career’s beginning. She landed a job as a co-host of a morning show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and during that time she launched her show Lip Service and spearheaded The Morning After With Angela Yee. The entrepreneur’s work ethic quickly gained notoriety and put her in the spotlight and other radio stations took notice.

After six successful years with the media conglomerate, she took a leap of faith and joined New York’s Power 105.1 new radio show The Breakfast Club with Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy. The trio did groundbreaking work, became nationally syndicated after two years, and created something magical for Black culture.

In 2022, the award-winning journalist decided to leave the beloved morning show and branch out on her own. In August 2022, it was announced that she teamed up with iHeartMedia to launch a new show, Way Up With Angela Yee. Although some were confused at the timing of her departure from her previous station, she knew there was no better time for her to chase a long-time dream.

“For a long time, I’ve been wanting to do my own thing. I always came there with the intention of one day doing my own show again; I came from having my own show and then to a group,” Yee told Blavity. “Like I had that goal already and I didn’t know if the Breakfast Club was going to work or not. When we first started, it really wasn’t working the way that we thought right away. It took a lot of time to build it to what it became.”

Being a woman who works in the entertainment field where many powerful positions are held by men, the Wesleyan University alumna witnessed “the boy’s club” first-hand.

“It’s so normalized that people will criticize everything about you from the way you talk, the way you look,” Yee shared. “They think you’re trying to f**k somebody, they think you got there because you did f**k. It’s just what’s gonna happen when you stand next to somebody in a picture.”

She added, “People don’t think that you are in a position that you deserve to be in. And a lot of times you have to realize for people that’s their own insecurity about their abilities.”

Throughout this transition period over the past two years, she’s has learned the power of being confident in one’s decision-making skills.

“I think the main thing is to not be comfortable. A lot of times, the reason we don’t do things is because we are scared and there’s a lot of people that can weigh in and have opinions and comments, and you really do have to trust yourself and sometimes that’s hard to do,” she explained. “And so, my first instinct was always, yes, go for it. A lot of people tried to talk me out of it like it wasn’t a good idea, but I think that women, in particular, we have really amazing instincts. So, to be able to trust ourselves and what our gut tells us.”

Being the commander in chief of her radio show is something she enjoys because she gets to call the shots instead of relying heavily on others to pull their weight, which in her opinion makes the work she does easier.

“I think that being accountable for yourself is one of the greatest privileges that a person can have. I realize that in every aspect of every business, it’s really nice to have more control,” Yee said.

When the 48-year-old got a chance to create a platform from scratch, everything from the name to the content to people she chooses to co-sign or give guest co-host opportunities to was and is always intentional. Her mission is to help “elevate” others whether they are high-profile or not.

“It’s all about elevation and I think the most important thing I can do with my platform is to put other people on. That’s the biggest goal for me on my show,” she said. “That’s why I start the show off shining a light on people who are doing positive things in the community ’cause a lot of times those people don’t get the credit, they don’t get the spotlight but they deserve it. Little things like that can help a business or help a person. I just like the fact that people can call in and shine a light and say something positive.”

In addition to her show, Yee’s hitting the road more to do live shows at festivals nationwide for her Lip Service podcast and showcase her other business endeavors. She’s a real estate investor and co-owns Coffee Uplifts People, a coffee line and shop in her hometown and Drink Fresh Juice, which has two New York locations.

Soon, her fans will see her host and narrate a TV series led by film producer P. Frank Williams that has to do with hip-hop. As Yee continues to march to the beat of her own drum, she’s looking to get behind the scenes as a producer and more because she feels her career offers a unique perspective when it comes to storytelling.

“I want to start thinking about and moving more behind the scenes. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in production. I executive produced a docuseries with Jennifer Williams that was on VH1, so I kind of really wanna help with the next generation, so to speak on people who are doing things,” she said. “If it’s helping, like the next radio personalities, the next people that wanna act and all of that ’cause I do write and so I really wanna get more into that.”

A rule of thumb that Yee lives by and would share with anyone looking to get into media as a career is to be so dedicated to your work that others think what you do is a piece of cake, even when it’s not.

“I think what people don’t understand is that if it looks like it’s easy, that means you’re doing a good job,” she said. “And so if it looks like it’s hard, you’re not doing a good job.”