Meet Brandon West | Owner & Content Creator at Front Page Pop

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon West and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind the success of me and my brand, Front Page Pop, is my personality. I would consider myself more introverted, which is atypical of a lot of others in the entertainment and content creator industries, but for me, it works. I hear over and over again from celebrities and television personalities that I interview well and make people feel comfortable and able to open up easily. This allows me to give the best interviews possible, and share the best content possible with my readers/viewers. Another aspect of my introverted personality is not being easily distracted so I have been able to stay focused and consistent throughout the years. Consistency is incredibly important in building your brand.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Front Page Pop is designed to be an entertainment website and social media brand that blends a perfect mix of celebrity news, reality tv, and pop culture nostalgia. What sets me a part from most of my competition is that I truly try my best to keep my content positive or at least neutral. Honestly, it is not easy to grow that way in this space. Celebrity gossip blogs and content creators thrive on negativity, sharing unconfirmed or even untrue rumors, and hateful rhetoric; it boosts their views.

However, I’ve learned that I earn a lot more respect doing it my way. Not only from celebrities and partners, but also from myself. It’s a big lesson to not just learn, but remain loyal to. It’s so easy to get caught up in the temptation of sharing things you shouldn’t. Especially when you become acquaintances with certain celebrities or industry partners who share details with you in confidence that you know would make a good story, but you don’t want to burn that bridge. It can be tough to compete with those who have less of a moral compass.

Because of my commitment to this, I’ve developed a great partnership with Brandon TV, or BTV, for short (not related to me, the name is just a funny coincidence!). In addition to promoting their content on my blog and social media channels, I also have a Hard Topics segment on their celebrity talk show, “Obsessed,” with host Brandon Stewart where I get to ask some juicy questions to the celebrity guests!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Some of my favorite places in the Columbia area are filled with relaxing fun and of course a few good bites. For breakfast, I love Cafe Strudel and O’Hara’s Bakery Cafe in Lexington. Afternoons can be spent outdoors on the riverwalk downtown, out on Lake Murray, or walking around downtown. The zoo is also really fun; my favorite part is feeding the giraffes! I love Saturday mornings at the Soda City Market in downtown Columbia on Main Street. There are so many amazing vendors there from food to candles to artwork — there’s something for everyone!

Some of my favorite dinner spots are Barrio Tacos for custom tacos and amazing margaritas, RF’s Corner Grille in Lexington for a quick, local bite that is always satisfying, Black Rooster in West Columbia for a fun rooftop ambience, and Publico for creative cocktails and good food with friends. For grabbing drinks with friends, Smoked downtown Columbia is always great for a classier cocktail, or hitting up Hazelwood Brewing in Lexington for outdoor seating and brews. Oh, and I would be a terrible friend if I didn’t take them to Kaminsky’s or Nibl for a sweet treat!

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?
I would love to shoutout Kaitlin Popow Mark for helping contribute to my success with Front Page Pop. We actually began our celebrity and pop culture news blog together under a different name, KB Pop Culture (K for Kaitlin and B for Brandon), back in college. Since then, Kaitlin has gone on to do her own thing by starting Leave Your Mark Social, a social media marketing agency, and I rebranded to continue what is now Front Page Pop on my own. I am so proud of everything she has done since and even though she is not directly involved, she is my biggest supporter to this day!

Website: https://www.frontpagepopculture.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontpagepop/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Frontpagepop

Image Credits
Front Page Pop logo with the black background and BTV in the corner: Credit: Obsessed on Brandon TV (https://itsbrandontv.live/show?showID=14)