Oh, Where HubPages May Lead…

We were surprised and delighted to see Alfreta (fastfreta) on the Today Show yesterday. As it happens, she and her daughter are featured on a new TLC show and fastfreta was first scouted for the show through her work on HubPages!

We asked fastfreta to give us some more backstory on the experience, and she most kindly obliged! Read on for this Hubber’s account of an awesome experience:

How did this whole TLC thing get started?

I wrote the article, here on HubPages, Why I Love to Clean, and the show was searching the Internet for “talent” for the show. Someone from the show contracted me through HubPages, I assumed that she Googled something referring to cleaning, I answered her message, and the rest is history. From the moment I was first interviewed, I was told that everyone associated with the network just loved me. I took it with a grain of salt, but I guess they were telling the truth.

Was this the first time the media had contacted you?

This is absolutely the first time the media has ever contacted me, because I’ve never sought this kind of notoriety. I actually consider myself quite boring in the grand scheme of things.

What was it like being on reality TV? Were there any particular highlights?

Being on the show was quite fun. The crew was so nice and easy to work with. The scenes all took place in real places; the bus was on a real bus route. The restaurant was a real restaurant, the house where the dinner party took place was just that disgusting, etc. What you saw was not all that took place, naturally; they had to cut so much. I understand when it airs internationally more scenes that we shot will be shown. For instance, a scene that took place in a department store will be shown, but I don’t know what else. I do hope a Hubber will let me know what they saw on the show, or maybe even send us a link to their version. If you read my article, most of the things that I mentioned were acted out.

The highlight has been all the notoriety I’ve received on TV and the Internet. I am just so overwhelmed, I can’t believe it.

What was it like being on the Today Show?

To be on a national syndicated show was, to say the least, totally unbelievable. The cast and crew of the show are all so nice. I met Star Jones, Dustin Hoffman, and Paula Dean. Willie Geist hesitated to shake my hand for fear I wouldn’t want to, funny. Actually I use hand sanitizer after I shake hands with men, very discretely I might add. Everyone said I looked great during the interview, but frankly I looked stiff to me.

When you first joined HubPages, what were your goals?

When I first joined HubPages, I thought I would make a lot of money, but I soon realized that would not be the case, so I ultimately developed a love for writing. The reason I don’t make a lot of money is that I don’t write articles that are searched on the web. That’s alright; I love writing here anyway, and I’ve met so many wonderful friends worldwide that I would never have known had it not been for HubPages.

Did you have any inkling that your online activity might lead to television engagements?

I never even had one iota of an inkling that I would get noticed by television or any media for that matter. I did read a while back that someone had been contacted by a Broadway Producer for one of her articles. It was Habee if I’m not mistaken. I thought then, “Oh that would be nice,” but beyond that I never thought it would happen to me. This is so far beyond anything that I ever dreamed. Ironically, I was thinking, to get my age and have this happen to me is so unbelievable.

Now that all this has happened, what do you plan to do? Do you have any particular goals for 2013?

Now that this has happened, I am just taking it all in stride, not getting ahead of myself, after all it’s just a cleaning show, or rather a freak show, LOL. I don’t know who would want me for anything else, but if they do I’ll have to weigh the options, not that I feel there would be any. I call myself a “One Trick Pony.” So I’m not sitting around waiting for Hollywood to beat down my door. It seems these days so many are getting their “one second of fame.” Oh, by the way I wrote another Hub about Famous People born in 1947, and I added myself in jest. Who knew that anyone would notice me!

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us fastfreta! And congratulations!