Tia Williams, Renae Bluitt, & Tricia Lee On The Friendship Rules Ambitious Women Live By

In the high-stakes world of New York media and real estate, valuing community is often said but rarely executed. However, for Tia Williams, Renae Bluitt, and Tricia Lee, community is a must-have.

What began as a chance meeting at Polish Bar, Tricia Lee’s iconic (now closed) Brooklyn salon, has evolved into a powerhouse trio that has survived industry shifts, personal life changes, and the landscape of traditional publishing. 

Her Agenda founder Rhonesha also uncovered in a recent sit-down that their respective Netflix deals (Perfect Find, Owning Manhattan, and She Did That) were manifested years ago over lunch dates and small budgets.

While the world sees the finished product of success, the trio is most proud of how they showed up during the hard times. For Tia, the author behind the global sensation The Perfect Find, the messy middle was a season of profound loss. After early success as a beauty editor at Glamour and Elle, she faced an unexpected set of events: a divorce, the loss of her home, and rejections from every major publisher.

“They rejected it for the most racist of reasons,” Tia recalls. “It was always, ‘We don’t believe a Black woman would reach these heights in the fashion industry.’ They wanted more trauma, more struggle.” 

During this time, it was Tricia who sat in a Brooklyn café and cried as if the rejections were her own, and Renae who stepped in to overhaul Tia’s social media strategy to bring readers into the journey of the book.

The friendship between the three ladies served as a safety net during major career and life pivots. Tricia, once considered a beauty guru in Brooklyn, walked away from her established salon empire to enter the real estate market with zero experience. 

“I didn’t even know who I was outside of beauty,” Tricia admits. For six months, she made zero dollars.

While a logical person might have quit, Tricia leaned on the community she had built with her friends and clients. She realized that the trust she built at the salon chair was where focus should be. By the time she pivoted, she wasn’t just a new agent; she was a trusted advisor to the very women she had served for years. Today, with nearly half a billion in sales, her story proves that “delay is not denial.”

One of the most useful takeaways from the conversation is the concept of “calling each other in” rather than “calling out.” Renae, a PR veteran and the founder of In Her Shoes, often functions as the group’s communication leader.

“She will check you so quick on a post or an email,” Tricia laughs. “She wants to position me better than I want to position myself.” 

This willingness to provide strict refocus is a high sign of true friendship. They lean past emotional support and hone in on strategic fixes. Renae dedicated four months to planning Tricia’s Atlanta events. Tricia pulled a hyper-focused Tia out of the house to see the sun. The trio functions as a home base for them all.

As they look toward the future, with Tia’s new novel The Misconnection slated for a June 16th release and Renae’s Holiday Bazaar celebrating 10 years, their focus remains on legacy. For Tia, that legacy is a gift for Black women. The ultimate lesson? High-level success is a marathon that is impossible to run alone. 

As Tricia notes, “We outlive the men, the kids leave… your friendships are where you land.” By investing in their friend group long before the world knew their names, these three women built a fortress.

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