From Black and White to Living in Color with Alexis "Lexi" Williams of Aloha Glamour

Hey, friends. Welcome.

And welcome back to noseyAF conversations about art, activism and social change.I'm your host and friend, Stephanie Graham, and it is 31 days of black Business, a series that I've been doing where every day in August, we are meeting a wonderful black business owner to celebrate Black Business Month.So today's guest is Alexis Williams, or as she says, we can call her Lexi, who is the founder of Aloha Glamour, the world's only Afro Hawaiian fashion brand with every head wrap and every pair of earrings are handmade by artisans in Ghana she's known for years and calls family. The brand of Aloha Glamour is to live in color, and Lexi means that all the way down.So as we do around here at noseyAF, we're gonna play our lovely theme music, and then we're gonna talk to our new friend, Lexi.

Gotta get up, get up tell the whole world you a winner Winner Vision of a star with a mission in the cause what you doing, how you doing?What you're doing and who you are Flex yourself and press yourself Check yourself, don't wreck yourself if you know me then you know that I be knowing what's up. Hey, Stephanie Graham is nosy as Lexi.

Welcome to noseyAF.

Hey, Aloha. It's Issei.

So excited to have you here. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Oh, no, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Chale.

Ooh, what's chale?

What does that mean? Chale. So that's a Ghanaian phrase for like, homeboy, homegirl. Like, hey, chale. Oh, really? Uh huh.

Thank you for telling me.

You're welcome.

I feel like, do you speak Twi? Fluently.

Ooh, cra, cry, cra, cra. So I speak enough to where the locals are like, hey, she's learning all, but not enough to.Because once they go off in a tangent, I'm like, osedayne in English. Like, what did you say in English?

Okay.

Osedane means what you say, but I say Ose Dane in English.

Okay, Osedane in English. I feel like already there's like another workshop.Before we started recording y', all, I was asking Lexi about, you know, she's wearing this beautiful head wrap. If you're watching the video, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, a head wrap workshop. And now I'm like, you know, a. A tweet basics workshop.

But it's just the basics, like, yeah, enough to get you in the country. And they're like, hey, she knows what she's talking about, but yeah, yeah, I love it.

Yeah, I would love these things. So listener already off the bat. If you're interested, please let us know, and we can organize this class.

Yes, please let us know.

So, Lexi, for people who are meeting you for the first time, please share with us what is Aloha Glamour and what inspired you to create it?

Ooh. Okay, so Aloha Glamour is the world's only Afro y and fashion brand.It was inspired by the cultures that really shaped my daughter's Lauren Taylor's story.And what started as a way to honor her memory really grew into a fashion brand that celebrates African and Hawaiian cultures through clothing, accessories, and the craftsmanship, the artisans who actually make our products. Like, most of our pieces, our head wraps, our earrings, our bracelets, they're all handmade in Ghana. And I've worked with these people for years.So, like, they're not just suppliers to me. They are literally like family. Like, I've shared meals with these people. I visited their homes, the workshops. I know their children. I call them tts.So, you know, I always tell people when they buy from Aloha Glamour, like, every piece literally has a story behind it. So you're not just helping Aloha Glamour.You're helping Gladys and Timma, whose daughter depends on the orders to go to school because they have to pay for school from infancy all the way throughout high school. So. Wow.So not only are you supporting the artisans, like, you're preserving their cultural traditions, and you're wearing something that stands out in a world full of people who look the same. So the name, my daughter, Lauren Taylor, she was born and she died in Hawaii while I was stationed there, because I was active duty, military.And after losing her, I didn't know how to grieve, because, you know, in African American communities, grief is not something we talk. Losing a child is not something that we talk about. And I wanted to hold on to that chapter of my life somehow.And that's where Aloha Glamour came from. Like, aloha in Hawaiian means hello. It means goodbye.So to me, it represents the love, the loss, and the learning of actually showing up and living again. And the glamour piece, of course, is the confidence and finding yourself after life knocks you down.Because we all have a story that has knocked us down.

Yeah.

And for me, Aloha Glamour reminds me that even in our hardest moments, beauty can still exist.

Yeah. That's really, really. That's really sweet. Because I was wondering, how did grief shape the business that we see today?Like, I mean, especially because the colors, you know, with picking, like, African fashion and, you know, Hawaiian fashion, it's just so bright and color, so. And then we always, like, pair grief to, like, you know, black and gray. Yeah. Yeah.

As women, we kind of take the way we feel, and we dress that up on the outward. So when you see people in black and neutral, you're just like, mm, maybe they just going through life, but through the motions of life.But when you see somebody in color, you're like, it makes you smile.

Yeah.

Because there's something about someone who. Who just wears color that makes you happy. And listen, losing a child changes everything.Like, one day you're planning the future, and the next day you're planning a funeral. And, man, Hawaii holds some of the most painful memories of my life, because that's where I lost my daughter.And I remember maybe two or three weeks after losing her, my friend took me to their local flea market, and I put on one of the Hawaiian pua skirts, which they use as traditional hula skirts, and I wore it as fashion, and that just changed the game, because when I brought it back to Mrs. B, people were like, oh, my gosh, that's so different. You know, if you sold those, I would buy it. So I was like, wait a minute. So that's why I couldn't completely let go of, like, Hawaii and aloha.Glamour definitely allows me to carry both the grief and the healing with me with color. And our brand model is live in color.

Okay. I love it.

Live in color, baby.

Yeah. Which you are so right. Like, it really does make people smile to wear bright colors. It makes me wonder, like.And this is going to sound really stupid, but I just wonder, like, oh, my God, this is such a stupid question, but, like, I feel like African color is just so colorful. Like, Africa is so colorful. Like, where does that come from? I don't know. Do you know?

So what's traditionally African print isn't African.

It was.

It's okay. It's Indian slash Indonesian. What happened was. Lord, don't make me quote. But it was. It was a. It was a war going on.And there were some African soldiers in the area, and the Indians, they tried to reproduce some of the. The handmade batik fabric that they were doing, but they didn't like the imperfections.So what the Africans did was they took it back to their countries, and you know how you give us scraps, we gonna make it into.

Yeah. Yeah.

So that kind of started the whole fabric African fashion movement back then, and they started to create their own patterns, like the woven kente that comes out of Ghana. You have the asoke. I know I'm not pronouncing that word right, but that's out of Nigeria.

But we.

We have this innate ability to just take what somebody else doesn't value and doesn't want and make it our own. And I love that about African Americans and the African culture.

Yeah.

We're so tied. Like, going back to Ghana and seeing some of the things that we still do here that they do. Like, it's just in our blood. And it's crazy.Like, you wouldn't even. You would be. It just fathomed me. Like, I can't believe that this is where we got this from. It's instilled in us. It's in my blood. It literally is.Yeah.

You know, I'll speak for myself. Like, not necessarily taught that. It's just so, like, wild to hear that, see that. It's like, whoa. It's still mind blowing.Even, like, as a middle aged person,.

I'm just like, wow, middle age, girl.

Middle age. I like to say a woman of a woman of a certain age.

Of a certain age. So I feel you.

Hey, how do you decide what pieces you decide to bring into your collections?

For me, it's what I like to wear because I feel like if I wear it and if I style it in a way that I would be comfortable in it, my target audience will find me. Right. But of course, I'm gonna carry the key items. The head wraps, the skirts, the kimonos. But, like, earrings like this, I've never seen them.I just discovered these the last time I was in Ghana. And I was there for four months, so from September to January. And as soon as I saw em, I said, I want em in all colorways.And they come in different shapes too, because it's so different. So it's gonna draw people's attention to the earrings. I say people gonna stare anyway, baby. Might as well make it worth their while.And listen, I live in Washington, D.C. now. I work close to Capitol Hill.So showing up as my authentic self with my hair wraps and my African print on, they're looking at me like, who this girl is. But they're also like, oh, my gosh, you're so beautiful. I love the colors.

Yeah.

So who says it can't be corporate?

Yeah, we get to decide that.

Absolutely.

Especially, like, with your phrase about, like, seeing color again. Right? Like, bringing color back to corporate.

Oh, I love that. Come on. New hashtag color. Back to corporate I absolutely love that.

Yeah, it's yours.

I said, after I lost my daughter, right. Everything was in black and white. It was just black and white until I put on color. And that's. That's when I started to live in color.Ashley Blaine Featherson. Wow.

Wow. Yeah.

You just made me. I said that about 11 years ago. I was just going through the motions of life.

And it's sort of powerful, too, that, you know, that this brand comes from, you know, your late daughter. Because it's like, does it feel like a piece of her, like, comes out? Was she really into color?

And.

So I lost my daughter when I was seven months pregnant. Ah, copy.But what I feel like is I was just having this conversation with a doctor friend of mine, and he was asking me, like, in what way do you feel like your daughter isn't acknowledged or remembered or. It was something to that effect.And I said that even though she wasn't on this side of the earth, her being inside of me for so long, I started to learn her routine. I started to learn what she like. I started to learn when she's up. I started to learn what side of my stomach she liked to sleep on.So in my mind, she was this Afro Hawaiian princess because she was being born in Hawaii. So that's where I took the whole Afro Yan brand and made it into Aloha Glamour. And I feel like she would have been just as colorful if I present.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

I love so much you act just like your mama.

Yeah.

Yeah. That would have been her. And then she would have been a baby of the family, too.You know, the baby siblings, they always a look colorful and animated, and that would have been her.

I love animated personalities. It really just. Just makes me smile so much. People who are just so theatrical about everything.

About life.

Yeah, about life. Yeah. Even if it makes, like a co worker roll their eyes, it's just like, I just love it because it just. It just tickles me.

I am that co worker. I can assure you I am.

You say African fashion is not a trend here. It is how we live. What does that statement mean to you?

That statement means. It goes back to my motto, living color. Like how. How you do anything is how you do everything. So I show up in African fashion every single day.Starting the brand in Mississippi. Right. Is Mississippi itself. Just saying Mississippi in African just don't really Is not a match made in heaven.So here I am showing up to these events with corporate members and key players in the city, and they're like, you know, Looking at me as if I'm out of place. When this is my heritage, like, this is. This is African Americans heritage. A lot of them say, well, I ain't come from Africa. I'm from such and such.Baby, we came from somewhere. Yeah, right. You may not know exactly where, but where we came from some part of Africa.So it's okay for other races and other nationalities to show up in their traditional clothing, but as soon as we do it, it's like, yeah, who she thinks she is? Baby, I'm oheema. I'm exactly who I think I am.So I feel like if we all tapped into showing up as our authentic self, now I'm gonna say showing up in Aloha Glamour or showing up in African prints, then I feel like we would be in a much better space, mentally, physically, spiritually. Because it's something about tapping into it that just. It just opens your eyes to what mainstream media doesn't want us to connect with.

Yeah, that's really exciting and inspiring. I'm like sitting up taller hearing you.

Say that, you know.

So with that being said, could you give sort of like, what's a beginner's approach to like, you know, mixing maybe traditional African aesthetics with contemporary style?

Start with anything. Baby steps, right? Don't come out with a full three piece African fashion African suit, because you may not feel comfortable.But like we were talking earlier, just throw on a head wrap. Like I have on a burgundy top and some black sweatpants. Start small, right?And if you're not comfortable with the head wrap, start with the earrings, start with the bracelets.I was just telling a friend of mine because she's in the corporate world, and she was like, you know, people think I've lost my blackness, but I haven't. I just don't know how to incorporate it. Baby, start small. Yeah, just start small. Take 80% of what you would normally wear and 20% add something new.

Okay.

I love it. I think that that's the easiest way for you to just ease on into it. So you may start with a head wrap and you may not start with it on your head.You may start with it as a scarf. So, right. You wear blazers. You don't have to necessarily wear this as a head wrap. Right. You can throw this thing on. Wear it as a scarf.

Yeah.

Like it's cold outside. Put it on as a scarf. Throw it on over your head. You know what I'm saying? Like, it. It doesn't have to be what it presents.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, it's just fabric. Yeah, right. You can wrap it around your waist as a belt. There's multiple ways that you can do African fashion.

Yeah. I love this beginner guide to aloha glamour. Thank you for that.

You're welcome, girl. I'm here all day.

I love it. Instead of coming, I love the three piece suit thing.

Like, oh, my God, what have I done now? See, Right?

Sure, sure, baby.

And you don't. It's something that you have to experience. But every time I'm out in my full regalia, the way people stop.The way people address me is like, out of this world. They're like, oh, my gosh. And I'm talking all racist, all races. I get so much.It's almost like they respect me more for showing up as I, you know, as me. Yeah. Because I'm not interesting. I'm not blending in when I just wear the Americanized clothes. Right?

Yeah.

I'm wearing print, I'm wearing color, and it makes people stop and stare. So there is a certain level of if you don't have confidence. Right. Wearing it is gonna give you confidence.Cause they gonna be hyping you up with every step that you make. They gonna be like, yes. Okay. Okay. Hair wrap.

Oh, I love it. Okay, great. So this is also a confidence booster. Introverts, place your orders today. Introverts, today.You usually work with a lot of artisans in Ghana. You said, how do those relationships begin?

The first relationship began right. During COVID Okay. I had just started the brand in 2017,.

But I had almost 10 years.

Almost 10 years.

Wow.

And when Covid happened, I was like, oh, my gosh. People aren't going to work. They're not outside. So I need to find a way to pivot real quick.So I was one of the first brands to start selling African print masks. And I was ordering so much from Ghana to where the young man, he was like, you know, sis, can you buy to sewing machines?And I'm like, yeah, I can buy two sewing machines. I done burnt out they other sewing machine from them making so many orders. The first it was the sewing machines. Like, well, can you.Can we hire two people? Because we need to keep up with the orders. And I'm like, wait a minute. Why are you asking me what you could do with your own business?

Yeah.

He said, no, this is your business. This is your brand. You are our boss. So they were able to move from being outside working on our mask to a.A small container with ac, These two new machines that I had just purchased and they even put my picture up in the, in the office as like their CEO. They was like, no, this is Aloha Glamour. Because they were doing travel before they met.You know, before I reached out to them on Instagram, I think it was Instagram or Facebook is where I found them.So when I finally went over to visit and to see, see the shop and to meet the people, you know, I started building other relationships with other artisans there who did more than just mass. And that's kind of how our relationships built. So we start as, you know, employee, employer, type. But when I tell you we are literally family.

Yeah.

Like, we are family. Yeah.

What's it like to manage a team then over, like in a different continent even?

It's like managing any other other team. The only thing is the time difference really. So I have to talk to them either very early in the morning or I have to stay up late to talk.And every year, so I usually go to Ghana twice a year.

Okay.

But lately I've been going once a year, which is like the December timeframe. So while I'm there, we'll go through our pricing, we'll go through our orders like from the previous year and how we're gonna move forward.So I use that December time to really focus and spend time with the people who make our products and talk about, like, what we can do differently.

And.

Stuff like that. But yeah, it's like managing a team.

Yeah.You've obviously have been in business for a very long time, and I feel like having like an online store becomes something that the fashion girlies are interested in. You know, when they want to start a boutique, what is it that they're saying?

Actually.

They want to have like an online store.

Maybe they want to be stressed out because it's so ghetto, especially when it comes to supply chain. And it depends on the type of boutique.I will say that, okay, for the African brand, it's unique because we have to deal with the logistics of the items getting here. So Africa is underdeveloped for a reason. Where it would cost less to ship from China.And no shade, but a lot of the big African brands, they're buying from China.So that's why they're able to offer their items at a, a more affordable price as opposed to Aloha Glamour, because not only am I paying my artisans above the minimum wage in their currency, but also shipping to ship like a, a six pound bag from, from FedEx full of accessories is gonna run me like between three $400. Wow. So that has to Go. Yeah, it's, it's so it's, it's cost effective to get the stuff made in the local currency.But when you add shipping, that's why the price has to, to, you know, it has to, it has to match, right?

Yeah.

So when girlies say they want to start a boutique, they have to be very specific as to what type of boutique they want to start. And they really need to do their research when it comes to who's going to supply what they want to buy.Like, there are a lot of wholesale markets around here that they could literally drive and go to. Like in Atlanta, in Texas, I think they even have some in New York where you can go and it's literally called like cash carry.So you go there with cash and you can bring the stuff back or you can go there and do pre orders to bring your stuff back.So future boutique owners really have to, you know, sit down and do the swot analysis of the stuff that they, they want to sell if it's, if it's even gonna sell. Because I feel like with boutiques right now it's all trend based.

Yeah.

As opposed to, you know, really selling stuff that last. It's fast fashion and it's trend based right now.

Yeah.

And it seems like what were some of your, what were some of your stumbling blocks along the way?Because it's like you have this business where you have to deal with folks like in different countries, time zones, like, you know, how did you even learn to do all of that?

So it goes back to the whole start of Aloha Glamour right here. I was just wearing these cute suits, skirts, these cute outfits. And then people started to buy and I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute.This is a business.

Like this is a real life business.

So I feel like fashion and the business aspect found me it. I didn't wake up and say, h, I'mma start a business. No, because there's so much that has to go into it.Like man, you gotta find out who your target audience is. You gotta research your competitors.And when I say your target audience, I'm not just saying, oh, they 25, they don't have no kids, they just, they're professional. They like the color pink. No, you have to dig deep into the psychoanalysis of your ideal client.Because when you make your posts, when you set up your website, the person who goes on it, they gotta be like, oh, she talking to me. You gotta make them want to give you they money. Right? Yeah. So it's not their favorite color. It's not where they live. It's how many kids do they have?What are their hobbies? Do they like Tabitha Brown? Do they watch the View? Are they the old school 1 in 6?And park girlies, like, you have to really know how to talk to your person and how to nurture your person in order to get them to be returning customers. Right.

Wow.

So, yeah.

How did. How long did it take you to like, to do that process or do you do it? I was gonna say. Okay. Okay.

I was still learning. So what I. What I find about the African fashion brand specifically. Right. You have. I have customers who only wear Juneteenth and Black History Month.Okay. So the way I talk to them is not the same way I'm talking to the girlies who like to show up like me every single day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.So I really have like two different segments that I. Well, it's actually three. Cause then I got my church ladies.

Okay.

Church ladies, they like to wear African print when pastors say wear it on Folk 4th Sunday. And that's the only time they gonna reach out. But I know, like my African girlies, they like. Not the African girlies, but my church ladies and my.My church ladies, they love sets. Like we was talking about them three piece, two piece sets. Oh, baby.They need the skirt that's gonna match the blouse that's gonna match the head wrap. And if you got a bag to match it too, baby, they all in there. They like the four piece.

I'm not mad. I'm not mad.

You have. You're not mad?

No, I said I'm not mad at that.

No, I love that. I'm not mad either, baby. Cause they be putting that stuff on and then they like to.They like their husbands to wear something that's gonna match them too. Aw. So I know that about my. My churchgoers. My. My. That target audience.And then I have the target audience who like to wear stuff for Juneteenth and Black History Month. Now this, this is like my younger audience.They like the rompers, they like the crop tops, they like the head wraps, the big head wraps that they gonna put on as a shirt.

Yeah.

And then within that same segment, I have the family piece. So I have a mother who likes to dress their husband, who likes to dress their kids in the same thing.So it's really about knowing, but, you know, also keeping up with them too. I'm constantly asking them what things are they liking.You know, asking their advice as well, because your customer people will tell you what they want to buy. You just gotta listen to em.

So, yeah, you know, like in church they call folks who go to Christmas and Easter creasters.

No, I never heard that. But.

You never heard that? Yeah. Like they'll say, oh my gosh, here come the creasers.We have to get there early so we can get a place to sit because, like, people are coming in just for like holidays. I feel like there should be like that kind of the term for like Black History Month. Juneteenth. Like, I don't know what it would.

Be, but I'm with you.

I feel like that's like a great beginner section. I think I would probably fall in as I begin, you know, as I try out some of this stuff. But yeah, I have to think of like a fun, a fun name.So you spoke about. Is it Pokhram Nasaba?

Pokrom? N Saba? Yes.

Okay. Because I definitely want to talk about how you're a black woman from Mississippi becoming a queen mother in Ghana.

Baby. That was not in my bingo card ever. Do you hear me? Being a whole. Not in my bingo cards. So a lot of Americans don't. I didn't.I don't understand the fullness of chieftaincy. Whereas in Ghana they have two parallel systems that run at the same time.You got your political, like the president, the prime ministers, you know, the council people, and then you have your chiefs, your queen mothers, your. I don't know the, the, the names of all of the titles, but these are two parallel systems that are operational in West Africa. And I had no idea.Like when people ask me about my title, I have to tell them that I didn't go over there looking for a title. No, I didn't pay for my title because apparently that's a thing. But I went over to Ghana for business, right?And like I said earlier, those business relationships developed into family relationships. And so after showing up, helping where I could, medical bills, funerals, building the trust, like, the traditional leaders honored me with the role.And when a lot of people hear the title, they think it's all about royalty. When for me it's really about responsibility. Because Pokram is in the Abri area, which is like in the mountain area.And it's a village of 10,000 people that I'm respons for checking on. I'm responsible for listening to them and connecting the resources where I can.But the stool name that they gave me was Nkosohima, which is development Queen mother. And traditionally that's giving to a woman from the diaspora or they have nkosohini too, which is for men from the diaspora.And as a development Queen mother, I'm looking at the development, looking out for the women, the children, and the families in the village.

Wow. Do you like it?

How's it going?

When I tell you it's an honor. And again, it's something that I'm still learning.

Yeah.

As my. They gave me the title two years ago, but my official installment was this past January.And being in the palace and sitting on the throne and giving the people who came to visit with me their. Their traditional names, it was like.I can't even put it into words because, again, a girl from Mississippi, from the hood, and now I'm a whole queen mother. Like, I have to sit sometimes and just take it all in. Because again, here, the title really ain't. Because people don't know.

Yeah.

But in Ghana, I am reverenced in a way. I'm held to not only such a high standard, but everybody really respects the position. They honor the title.I met a young man in Mississippi, and he found out that, you know, I was in Cosohima and he was from Ghana, and he said, you know, I want to come take the queen to dinner. Right. So I said, okay, well, we could be the Texas Roll House. Cause there's no. It's a brand for us there. Right. Something American.But when I tell you, when he came to see me, it was like that scene off Coming to America. Oh, my goodness. I said, if you don't. I'm talking about the bowing and everything. He was like, wow.

Yes.

It was really like that. Wow. And being in the DMV area, I have Oheema on my tag title. It says Oheema, and in the tree language, that means queen. Right. My title is nkosohima.So ohima is all that could fit on my tag. And I literally had this guy honking, telling me to roll down the window. And I thought he was a crazy person. So I rolled down the window.He was like, etise, Ohima. Like, I was like, okay, we gonna do this in traffic. Okay. How you doing? Hey.

I love that. It's like another thing.Like, no matter where in the diaspora, some man's, like, going to totally roll down the window and try to, like, check you out, say hello, you over. Yeah, yeah.

All the things,.

You know, what is. What do you wish more people in the US understood about building relationships with communities in Africa?

I really wish people understood that. Don't believe the hype that they see on tv. Like, they try to paint this narrative that Africans really don't like African Americans.And I can only speak about the West African. The West Africans right now, particularly Ghana, they love us.As soon as you touch down, it's, welcome home, sis, or, you know, we're happy you're here. And building cultural relationships in general.I feel like if people just talk and get to know each other and, you know, just really find out about what makes them. Them, like, I feel like that could. That's the answer to all this violence.

Yeah.

Everything is just a misunderstanding off of what somebody told us about them and not us actually getting to know them for ourselves.

Wow.

In building any relationship, I would say just don't listen to the noise. Like, actually take the time to talk and have these conversations with each other.

Yeah. That's really powerful about, like, being able to, like, connect back to these different, you know, countries that it would.It would, like, help heal violence. That's a big deal.

Yeah. Because that's what all wars are about.

Yeah. No. Yeah.

That's true religion.

Yeah. So now we need to send every black person on a vacation.

Yes. To Ghana. I say Ghana is the gateway to Africa, like, being the diaspora.

Yeah.

I feel completely safe walking down the street at 2, 3 o' clock in the morning in pitch dark. Cause, baby, the lights gonna go out. You hear me? The lights are gonna go out. But they are some of the most helpful, honest. They gonna be honest, too.Honest people that I've ever met in my entire life.

Wow.

So, yeah, we need. We need to. We need to go over to Ghana.

Yeah. That's it. I'll be like, fellas, stop fighting and get on the plane. Everybody get on the plane.

Let's go. Chale.

Yes. Exactly. When you think about the next chapter of Aloha Glamour, what impact do you hope your work leaves behind?Because, you know, you have this beautiful, colorful brand. You know, it's helping us tie into ourselves. You're a queen mother, you know.

So the next chapter of Aloha Glamour, I am. I would like to transition it into having a nonprofit arm. As a matter of fact, I've already started developing it.It's called the Hill and Crown Alliance Foundation. Okay. Where I take all the things that make up Aloha Glamour. The giving back in pokroom, the pageantry.I know we haven't talked about the pageantry, but I'm actually representing Ghana in Belize.

Yes. In August. Yes. Which is when this will be airing.

Okay.

You'll have to tell. You have to tell us about that. You have to tell us about that.

But the products from the artisans and the grief. The grief piece is huge for me. So transitioning. Not transitioning, because I do still plan to have the profit piece.

Sure.

But the nonprofit is very important to me. I wanted to reopen a brick and mortar, but I think I'm more so now focusing on just getting products into different stores.So Aloha Glamour can be represented across the country. And definitely continuing on with the. The fashion. The fashion shows.Because again, when people buy, when people support, they're not supporting just me now. They're supporting a whole village back in poke room and the artisans that make our products. Yeah.

That's awesome. I love that. And I love the idea of the not for profit also.

Yeah. That's something that's. That I've really been thinking about. Yeah.

Now you have to tell us about the pageant. Yeah.

So I will listen. I started pageantry at the age of 40. Right. And I won my first pageant. I was crowned Ms. Black Mississippi 2024.

Okay. And.

Pageantry really allowed me to sit at tables I probably wouldn't have been invited to otherwise. Well, that's not necessarily because Aloha Glamour opens a lot of doors. And when I say a lot, I'm talking about.We've been featured all over the place. Forbes, Oprah. You know, Beyonce gave us some of her coins. We got.

Yes.

That's amazing.

Wow.

Aloha Glamour is all over the place. Right?

Yeah.

But pageantry has introduced me to people and opportunities and conversations that have helped me grow.And participating in the Miss Black International Ambassador Pageant as Miss Ghana just gives me another opportunity to continue to tell Ghana's story, to tell my story, to talk about the issues that matter to me. And, you know, I don't take being crowned to represent a whole country lightly. And my platform is right in align with Aloha Glamour.I focus on child loss, miscarriage awareness, because I know what it's like to sit with grief.

Yeah.

Feeling like you're the only person that is experiencing that. So if sharing my story helps another mother feel seen, heard, and supported, then it's worth me showing up on stage to make that happen.

Yeah. That is really, really beautiful. Lexi, if somebody is going through grief right now, if you could give some words of wisdom to them.

I found healing in sharing my story. I found healing in showing up for other women. I cannot tell you how many women have walked up to me because I have been so vocal about my loss.And I've had this one young lady tell me, you know, I lost eight babies And I haven't been able to tell nobody. So I keep sharing my story because they feel comfortable enough to, you know, entrust me with that information.So to those out there who are going through anything, tell your story. And so what if it makes somebody uncomfortable, right? Your story is the key that's gonna unlock somebody else's prison.And if by you saying this out loud, by keeping your daughter or your son's name alive is gonna help you heal, then heal and grieve. Out loud, baby. It's that simple.

Lexi, thank you so much for being on noseyAF. This was such a rich, fun conversation.

Thank you, girl. Which means thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

That concludes another episode of nosy AF31 Days of Black Business. I'm your host and friend Stephanie Graham. I hope you took something away from from today's conversation and had a good time hanging with us.Be sure to check out the show notes to learn more about today's guest and consider supporting their work. You know how it goes. Whether you're making a purchase, hiring them, or simply spreading the word. Listen, who doesn't love a referral?It truly all makes a difference. Quick thank yous go out to Queen Lex and Freddie Bam Bam for the nosy AF theme music and Emma McGorick who hooked me up with the COVID.

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Shout out to the partners and supporters for this series. You can check them out in the show notes as well. Super grateful for a partner.

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That's the show friends until tomorrow. Stay curious and take care. Bye.