- March 14, 2025
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Not many people are looking to start a business at 70 years old, but not many people are Rhonda Shear.
From pageant queen to actress to entrepreneur, with standup comedy and authorship sprinkled in, Shear, who rose to fame in the early 1990s in Los Angeles and has called the Tampa Bay area home for two decades, is now gearing up for her next phase as a creative studio owner. She has no plans to slow down, and despite Home Shopping Network closing up its St. Pete headquarters later this year, she’s not going anywhere.
The business, Shear Media Studios, is set to open its first phase next door to the offices of Shear Enterprises in St. Petersburg in April. The studio operates under the umbrella of Shear Enterprises and is located on a parcel owned by the company. The investment in the project is starting in the low to mid six-figures.
Shear and other leaders on the project stress that ‘this isn’t Hollywood,’ but rather a space for everyone in the community, including those who want to stretch their creative skillset.
Having spent most of her professional career in studios nationwide and abroad, years of observation have shaped Shear's vision for what the space will offer the production crews that will soon be able to book slots for shoots ranging from influencer footage shot on an iphone to feature length movies.
“It's endless the things that we can do, from creating shows to having people just rent the studio and bring in their own crew, to us giving them whatever they need,” Shear says, amid the backdrop of hammers pounding and saws whirring.
The first phase of the studio includes a 3,000-square-foot flexible production space with a light grid, a cyclorama wall studio (a curved wall for a seamless or ‘infinite’ background) and an influencer suite which is meant for smaller sets that can be changed out in fifteen minutes. Each studio is wired for streaming and broadcasting and can be pre-lit and supplied with equipment as needed.
In the months to come additions will include a second 4,000 square foot studio; an industrial prep kitchen for culinary productions; a workshop and storage area for set construction; and a control room and soundproof booths for podcasters.
Noting that, “I had some really bad experiences,” on different sets over the years, Shear is making sure models and actors have a place to rest and hair and makeup artists have storage and dedicated spaces to work. She even envisions a speakeasy style room to get away and have a moment of quiet.
“I think all of those things that I didn't have, or I didn't see along the way, we can make it look better, and then we're always going to be continuing to make [it] better,” she says.
Another aspect that makes this particular space stand out? Shear’s availability as a resource to other creators.
“I feel better when I'm working or working on something or planning something, and now I get to plan and help, at least if they want to. Sometimes I won't be involved at all, I'm sure, but if they need my creative advice, I'm here for them, and I love that,” she says.
Shear has a handful of her own projects she’ll be using the space for, with talks of rebooting the TV series USA "Up All Night," which featured B-horror and cult-classic movies. And her office is right next door. “If I'm not involved in it, it'll make me crazy. I know I can answer questions. I know I'll be more, you know, very, very hands on, obviously, next door,” Shear says.
Beyond decades of broadcast industry knowledge, Shear has contacts around the world she has on hand to help creatives shop their stories around. She also understands the business of moving products. For influencers and podcasters looking to sell goods, Shear has connections in that arena via her time as an entrepreneur selling intimate apparel.
As an example, Shear offers, “We can offer that to someone. We can say, ‘Hey, you want to sell pots and pans. We can source pots and pans for you. We can put your name on it, and then we monetize it for you.’”
Shear’s generosity in an industry that has a reputation for gatekeeping and being ultra-competitive appears to stem from a lifetime of vocal doubters. She notes she was told that she couldn’t be a serious actor. “They said, ‘No, you're too sexy. Your mouth moves sexy’” she quips. “I can't help the way my mouth moves. I mean, that's, that's the weird stuff you would get from casting directors.”
When she decided to go into business for herself, she was told there are too many major players in intimate apparel and some questioned how she could make a difference in a saturated industry. Instead, her intimate apparel company Rhonda Shear Bras, with its signature Ahh Bra, soared. The company sold 25 million pieces within three years of its invention, eventually eclipsing $100 million in sales.
Thankfully, “The one thing that I haven't been told, this is the first project I haven't been told that ‘you can't do the studio.’ It's really fun,” she says.
Now, she’s paying it backward to other up and comers. “I feel like that's kind of my life's work,” adding that her business partner and husband Van Fagan has a similar philosophy.
“We've both given a lot of people shots. Some do backfire," she says. "Some people, you know, you kind of get hurt because they take it a different way, but that's part of life. When you open your heart up, you can also get kicked in the teeth, but usually it works out really well. And we love seeing people succeed.”
Fagan and Shear have been business partners since they started Shear Enterprises in 2001. While Shear is the ideas gal and front-facing portion of the business, Fagan and a team of 17 employees are the nuts and bolts of the operation, with plans to hire more as the studio expands.
Fagan’s son, Thomas, is vice president of operations at Shear Enterprises and grew up alongside the business. He is currently in charge of the financial portion of Shear Media Studios.
“We don't really work on budgets, to be honest with you,” the younger Fagan explains. “As we envision it as we build it, you know, we look at what it's going to cost. We look at our best options. That's just how we've always operated in business.”
If the company thinks a project is worth the financial risk, it'll take the chance, as opposed to nickel-and-diming the process. So far, in a space that was once a brownie factory, according to Fagan, and then a warehouse, has had approximately $250,000 put into its next iteration as a studio. Shear Enterprises has owned the property since 2010.
One challenge is staying limber as the studio project comes together. “We have to be very fluid on this whole thing, just with, you know, so many ideas, so many thoughts, so many pieces to the puzzle. And how do you put it all together? How do you sell it?” Thomas Fagan says. “It's evolved, it's changed. It's going to continue to change.”
Onward the group marches toward the opening date. “I hope that we bring it to new heights, and that it's just the people I know they're gonna come, I know it,” Shear says. “I think now putting that label, you know, having a full service studio, all things media is going to kill it. I really believe that with my hard parts. And I think if you believe it, it happens.”
