Buzz Editor

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Buzz Interviews Matt Kelly

I always wanted to be a drummer, for whatever reason I never did and started playing guitar when I was 9 years old. It was a passive hobby at first. I took guitar lessons basically just to learn songs and nothing else. The lessons didn’t last long. As I got more into music, I would jam in friends garages and be a bit more free with it.

I stopped playing guitar when guitar hero came out – I think I was in grade 7 at the time. After about a year of that is when I started looking at music as more of a craft than a hobby. I got into Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and John Mayer. By the time highschool hit, I was hooked. I spent my evenings, weekends, and honestly some school days just playing guitar. The tipping point for me was John Mayer’s “Live in LA” – I was hooked. I just needed to know how to play every note.

I basically forgot school at this point. When it came time to apply to college, I could play “Live in LA” front to back, but didn’t have good enough grades to move onto Post-Secondary education. I ended up having to do an extra semester, but I still think it’s worth it.

While I was in university, I decided I wanted to write songs and sing. I had no idea how to do either so I just went for it. I would hit record on my phone and see what I had when I was done. As time went on, I decided I wanted to take this more seriously. I found a manager, started taking vocal classes and amercing myself into the scene.

From there it began to get more serious – I saw that there was a lot more to creating the art than just hitting record on my cell phone.

Buzz Interviews Sharina Pegram of EMBClothing & EMBScents LLC

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One Saturday evening on March 2017, I was sitting in my car and was thinking about how much I love shopping and that I’m always buying me and my daughter outfits. I then went into my room, jumped on my laptop and created my first logo and started to think of a business name and I came up with EMBClothing, which stands for “Empowering Majestic Beauty Clothing.” I remember telling a couple of close people, but some laughed and others weren’t sure I had the talent, so at that moment, I started to say to myself I’m going to prove everyone who doubted and laughed. Ending of 2017 to 2018 summer, the business was doing great until I lost my job and that set me back because I needed some income rolling in to keep me going how I want my business to go. Staying home doing research I became more creative in the clothing business. I also started to think about how much I love candles and how my daughter suffers from eczema as well as sensitive skin and I suffer from dry and sensitive skin, I started to think of a scent business of organic homemade soaps and candles and came up with the name EMBScents which stands for “Empowering Majestic Beauty Scents.” Being a young entrepreneur with no team behind you is very hard, depressing, sleepless nights and constant headaches but no matter what I keep pushing, having faith and always say to myself I came this far to not quit and I wasn’t raised to be a quitter. It’s the year 2020 and I’m taking my business to another level because I see, I know and I will succeed to be the entrepreneur I always wanted to be and patience is the key to success!

Buzz Interviews Kourtney Holliday of Credit Connect

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The U.S Army is really where my road to entrepreneurship started. In the army I was a generator mechanic for about five years. A male-dominated industry that demanded most of my time. I loved that I was a part of something bigger than myself and that with my job specifically I was able to help others; but I Wanted more control of my time and income. From the first out at 21 I feel like God started grooming me for the position that I have today.

I kept finding myself in situations that I couldn’t explain, except to say that God had a plan for me.

During my search for a better job I found out about a credit repair company that claimed to help people and make me a millionaire with an Audi in 2 years!! (let’s all laugh, lol)

In my 21 years old mind I was Ecstatic!! Not only would I be able to clear my credit up but I’d be able to help my friends and family and even get a nice car out of the deal!! Rich? In two years? Yeah, no. It sounded too good to be true because it was!!

Just a few months after signing up (and paying of course) I realized that the company was just another multi level marketing scheme that was going to take my money and have me work for them without fixing anyone’s Credit!

With a bruised ego and a determined spirit, I carried on. Still looking for a way to become an entrepreneur and help other people (with a humble e3 salary).

It only took about six months of trial and error before I realized that you have to have money (or at least Have access to money) to make money in most cases. I didn’t have the money so I researched ways to gain access to it and it seems like all roads lead back to “good credit”!!

So BOOM , I set the goal to become a Business owner by 22 and a Home owner by 25!! ** Spoiler alert** I CRUSH IT !! During my journey of repairing my own credit, I realized that there were more people like me! People who wanted better for themselves but didn’t know where to start, because we had never been taught financial literacy.

At 23, my husband and I started our own Independent Credit Repair Company. We used ALL of our money (and some of the bank’s) to get educated on the laws of credit and debt then stepped out on faith!

Fast Forward to now, we own Credit Connect and hold Several other
several other business Licenses. We bought our house and We were blessed with two amazing little boys!

The company has exceeded my goals 10 times over !!

Buzz Interviews Kristi Johnson of Stuffed AF Cookies

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I’m a native of Arizona, born and raised in the valley. I had a incredible career as a Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer (Trooper) for 25 years. Although my career was in law enforcement my true passion was baking. When I retired in 2016 I attempted to be retired but after a year I realized I was still too young to live the retired life. I went back to work in the law enforcement field and then into a private security position.

In the beginning of 2020 I decided it was time for me to move forward with my dream of baking for more than just family and squad mates. It was time for me to jump into entrepreneurship with both feet. After talking to my family about it and making sure I had their support I started the process of starting what is now Stuffed AF Cookies.

I purchased an e-book on starting a small business “Hustle Smarter” from a friend of mine. That little nugget of information really helped me with the stuff I didn’t think about; the LLC, the business name, the licenses… So many things I didn’t think of when I decided I wanted to start a at home business baking cookies.

I knew I wanted to have a website but where to start? I was definitely a fish out of water in the realm of branding, logo and website. I reached out for suggestions and was turned on to Tiny Fox Creative, graphic designer. That entire process was my favorite part of starting my business. Being educated on how my brand and logo speaks my products language was fascinating. I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product. It’s 100% me!

Fast forward a few months and lots of learning along the way, here I am taking orders for my cookies.

Buzz Interviews Keiana Armani of Indigo Blue Style

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I am Keiana Armani Creative Director/Stylist Certified Fitness Trainer and CEO of the Online Fashion Publication That empowers women to “Embrace their Inner Empress”
My journey started almost 5 years ago in 2015. At the time I had full time job that I was very unhappy with. I was miserable overweight and stuck in the rat race. I was making just enough money to pay my bills car note and such but something in me wanted more. One day I walked into work and found a book on the desk that would change my life. It was a book by Joel Osteen. I read a line that said the richest place in the world was the cemetery there you’d find million dollar dreams never created. I began to cry and I said enough I’m leaving my job and I’m gonna Start creating the life I want. I picked a date on the calendar and I post dated my letter of resignation. That date came I walked in and resigned. I then became determined to recreate myself lose weight and become a fashion stylist. My son was taking karate classes at the time so I began to workout at the gym right next to his class. I attended my very first fashion week in NYC that same year. I left fear behind and I showed up with no invitations, no connections, Fashion was just always inside of me it just took for me to Embrace my inner Empress. I lost weight I started my career and my first work as a fashion stylist was published by a major company Curl Box. During this time I birthed Indigo Blue Style by simply sharing my story of fashion fitness and transparency on a weebly website I had created. I made a plan as to how I would grow the platform because it really was about empowering other women and bringing them along the journey with me. Over the years I kept working on myself mind body and spirit . Perfecting my craft And working with major publications as a stylist creative Director. By 2019 I was ready to relaunch the Brand and take it to the next level with a team of women writers , stylist, graphic designers etc and that exactly what I did. It was also a dream to become a certified Fitness trainer and spread the world of how much a healthy lifestyle is vital for success. I became a certified fitness trainer Jan. Of 2020.

Buzz Interviews Alece Plasencia of Blaxicana Couture

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Fashion design and becoming a business owner have always been lifelong dreams, but as a Black woman in college in the 1980’s, there were very little opportunities in the fashion industry, so I decided to follow my second passion and became a college counselor to help young people to follow their dreams. In 2018, I decided it was my turn and I bought my domain, business licence, and took a trip to the LA fashion district to begin crafting my custom denim designs. It took about a year to complete the samples, logo, website, and to research how to market to creatives. In April 2019, I got my big break and was offered a spot as a vendor at a popular pool party event in Indio, California called “Vestal Village” (sponsored by Vestal Watch Company) in which I sold my first jacket to an actress by the name of Sohm Kapila. This first sell inspired me to design even more, network with brands and host my own events.

Buzz Interviews Brooke Locklin of Pics By Brookie

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Christmas 2014, I unboxed my new Nikon Coolpix. Little did I know I was holding my future job! I took pictures of everything around me, eventually discovering Adobe Lightroom. Through process of trial and error, I discovered what I thought looked good. I really got interested in photographing people, so using my sister as a model I posted picture after picture on social media. Eventually people started asking me to take pictures of them, which led to senior portraits, then to couples, then to weddings.

Buzz Interviews Valerie McPherson of Author of Smart Swipe

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I am a first generation high-school and college graduate and the first in my family to attend grad school. Education has always been important to me but I have been even more amazed by the influence teachers and other service field individuals had on me growing up. So I knew I wanted to impact people’s lives just like they did.

I went into the field of Sociology where I got to learn so much about our social world and I was intrigued.

While in college I joined several organizations, the most impactful was the Odyssey.

It’s a writing platform with several topics and I wrote on many social issues a lot of which pertained to modern dating.

The opportunity to write a book came along and I knew I had to take it. It would be a chance to showcase a topic I wanted people to read about and learn from, that’s when Smart Swipe came along.

As I experienced college there was one phenomenon that was happening to me and a hundred other students, that was the hookup scene. Sex was always a hush hush type of subject and I had feared being called derogatory names for enjoying sex.

When I started to think about why we think of sex as such a taboo subject I looked back at my sex Ed classes, the media and how people spoke of it. They made sex to be such a bad thing with only consequences attached to it.

I knew that needed to change, and writing this book was going to help me.

It was going up conversation about the college hookup scene and what it means to be sex positive . All I had to do was start the conversation and build off of what’s already out there.

Buzz Interviews Kanithea Powell of Qwest Films Network

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I grew up in a small town in Florida called Eatonville. Eatonville is the oldest black-owned and operated city in the county. I was a country girl with a huge imagination and big dreams. I loved the arts and got started early. I wrote my first play at 15 and cast my siblings and the neighborhood kids for the show. We performed it in our church competition for Halloween and won.

I knew at that moment I had found my calling. From there, I was lucky enough to grace local and national traveling professional stages as well as Disney. From there, I became one of the founding members of the Orlando Black Theatre, the first African American theatre company in Orlando, Florida. There I directed, produced, and performed in several plays before moving to Atlanta and starting a career as a television producer for a local TV station.

In Atlanta, I formed Qwest Films Network and dove headfirst into the world of film. Event though I loved the stage dearly, the allure of freedom in film was something that I couldn’t ignore. After making several successful films and TV shows, and winning a few film awards, I moved to DC and released my first book “BUTCH, Never Judge a Butch By Her Cover”. Butch has been featured in several national and global publications like Huffington Post, NY Times, Buzzfeed, Diva, and After Ellen-just to name a few. Butch can be found in Barnes & Noble and on Amazon. The book is now in over 23 countries.

I moved to Houston a few years ago and have been working on my feature films and TV shows.

Buzz Interviews Ashley Lopez of Ixlaly’s Custom Creations

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I’ve always been into the whole arts and crafts thing as a kid. I was even planning to transfer to an art school, but for whatever reason I stayed put at my local high school. School and work became a priority and I placed art on the back burner.

When my little niece turned 7 I wanted her party to look cool with centerpieces instead of just the plain tables. Never having done centerpieces in my life I acted on impulse and did them. When I get an idea stuck in my head I have to do it. Everyone loved the decorations andni received a lot of compliments and suggestions to create my own Facebook page in Hope’s to book more parties.

Coming up with the name had to be the hardest, but my sister suggested Ixlaly’s which is part of my nieces name. So that’s what I went with after all she is the reason it all came about. I booked a few parties, but my page did not have much of a following to where people were seeing it. I eventually went from centerpieces, diaper cakes, hair bows, tutus, home coming mums to the shoes. I had a video go viral and my 200+ likes quickly grew to over 8,000. My orders started increasing and I was doing great.i started in 2012, but it wasnt until 2016 that I can honestly say business started booming.

In the beginning my work was not that great. Kudos to everyone who would lie to me and tell me they looked good it just kept me going and well practice makes perfect . After many failed attempts I finally got it down. Word of mouth from my customers and being able to market on social media is what had helped me to be able to make this happen.