Meanwhile, She with Aisha Beau

What does it mean to build a life you never saw modeled growing up?
 
Asia Milia Ware, beauty editor at The Cut, joins Aisha Beau Frisbey for a deeply personal conversation about ambition, beauty, relationships, and becoming the woman she once could only imagine. From growing up in Queens to building a career in fashion and beauty media, Asia reflects on the role of family, mentorship, hard work, and finding her own voice.
 
Together, they explore the difference between how success looks from the outside and how it feels to live it; the evolving relationship between beauty and self-worth; social media and self-perception; and what it means to prepare for marriage while creating a different blueprint for your future. Asia also shares what her mother's sacrifices mean to her and why opening doors for the next generation matters.
 
This is a conversation about expanding what's possible without losing sight of where you began.

FOLLOW ASIA:

Instagram: @missasiamilia

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

Chioma Ngwudo is the co-founder and CEO of Cee Cee’s Closet, the African-inspired fashion and beauty brand she built alongside her sister, Uchenna. What started with a trip to Nigeria has grown into an eight-figure business, more than 250,000 orders, and a network of artisans across Nigeria and Ghana.
 
But this conversation isn’t just about the success story. Chioma gets candid about what building for more than a decade has cost her, why her first million “was not fun,” the mistake of believing she had to do everything herself, raising outside capital, and what has to change when the skills that built the business are no longer the same skills required to take it to the next level.
 
We also talk about building with family, challenging narrow ideas about Africa through Cee Cee’s Closet, learning to become a beginner again, and the tension so many ambitious women know well: how do you stay hungry for what’s next without overlooking the life and success you once prayed for?
 
Chioma is still ambitious. She still wants more. But she’s also learning to make room for gratitude, visibility, and a bigger definition of who gets to be a face of success.

FOLLOW CHIOMA
Instagram: @chiomanngwudo
Cee Cee's Closet IG:  @ceeceesclosetnyc  
Cee Cee's Closet TikTok: @ceeceesclosetnyc
Website: https://www.ceeceesclosetnyc.com/

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What do you do when you’ve built the successful career, earned the title and paycheck—and realize the life you worked for no longer fits?

Aisha sits down with Erica Brinker for an honest conversation about leaving the C-suite, separating identity from achievement, and figuring out who you are when the version of you who got this far isn’t necessarily the woman you want to remain.

Erica shares why leaving corporate life felt almost like a funeral, how motherhood shifted her priorities, and how losing her infant son, Luca, changed her relationship with time and taught her how quickly everything can change.

They also get into ambition, money, validation, entrepreneurship, the pressure to have it all together, learning to speak more honestly, and the freedom Erica is discovering in her 40s as she gives herself permission to choose what comes next.

For any woman wondering whether she’s ungrateful, lost—or simply beginning to outgrow a life that once fit her perfectly.

FOLLOW ERICA BRINKER
At The Brink Podcast:  Youtube.com/@AtTheBrinkPodcast  
Instagram: @official.erica.brinker + @at.the.brink.media
Web: https://atthebrinkmedia.com/

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What happens when being strong, disciplined, and useful becomes so much a part of your identity that you no longer know how to exist without it?

This week, Aisha sits down with burlesque artist and Healing Through Seduction creator Perle Noire for a deeply personal conversation about self-devotion, embodiment, self-trust, and the identities women build around sacrifice.

Perle shares how her relationship with burlesque became a path back to her body after being exploited at 19—and why the work she does today isn’t ultimately about sexuality or performing for someone else. It’s about helping women reconnect with themselves.

Together, Aisha and Perle unpack the difference between self-discipline and self-devotion, why high-achieving women can struggle to surrender control, what eldest daughters and “strong friends” learn about usefulness, and why sensuality can be a relationship with yourself rather than something reserved for sex or partnership.

Aisha also opens up about her own relationship with her body after pregnancy and motherhood, being the “good girl,” sexuality and shame, ambition, financial freedom, and the pressure to become the successful person who can carry everyone else.

Later, Perle explains why she held a funeral for “Mama Perle”—the identity that helped make her successful but could no longer accompany the woman she was becoming—and what new boundaries have required her to leave behind.

This episode asks a difficult question: Who are you when your worth is no longer measured by how much you can carry for everyone else?

Listener Gift: https://blackburlesquequeen.com/5-minute-body-activation-mirror-work

FOLLOW PERLE: 

IG: @theperlenoire

YouTube: @theperlenoire

Web: blackburlesquequeen.com

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

Last night, a member of the Meanwhile, She community sent me a DM that stopped me in my tracks: “Remember how sad you were this time last year, about your last retreat?” She was right — and what a year can change.

In this solo episode, I'm sharing what it looked like to burn the house down last fall — canceling my Italy retreat, ending things with a manager who had stopped believing in me, and postponing the podcast I had been dreaming about for years — and what it looked like to rebuild slowly, quietly, one boring decision at a time.

I'm also sharing where I sit today: with a podcast that has finally come to life, representation that actually believes in me, and a Mallorca retreat that's almost half booked in less than twenty-four hours.

If you're in a season right now where things are falling apart and you're wondering whether you should quit, cancel, or reroute — this one is for you. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is give yourself permission to burn the house down and let the rebuild show you what's actually meant to be there.

You have one beautiful, sexy-ass life. Live it.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

There’s a version of you that has to be grieved before the next one can arrive.

This week I sit down with Kelly Augustine — celebrity stylist to Danielle Brooks and Gabourey Sidibe, Contributing Editor at Marie Claire, founder of StyledbyKAB — for a conversation that starts with clothes and ends somewhere much deeper.

We get into why styling is 80% psychology, the reset she needed after her divorce, what nobody tells you about meeting new moms in the middle of their body changes, how she navigated an industry that treated inclusivity as a trend and moved on, and the affirmation she’s leaning on right now: “I am here.”

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What if the best chapter of your life hasn’t even started yet?

This week I sit down with Patti Roberts — Creator, co-host of Between Mothers and Daughters (with her daughter Kamaria), and one of the sharpest voices I’ve had on the show about what it actually takes to build something real in your 60s. She’s living proof that the doors don’t close when you think they do.

We get into hiring her own daughter as her business partner, three marriages and the lessons she carried out of each one, why she cleared decades of people out of her life to make room for the version of her she was stepping into, and the reframe she wants every woman over 35 to hear: “This is not the end of the road. This is just midway.”

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

If you’ve been feeling like your life or your career is moving too slowly — this one is for you.

For years, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that I’ve had “slow growth.” It was my shorthand. My peace with the process. My way of making sense of the eight years I’ve spent building this thing from the ground up. Then one comment from a longtime community member broke the mantra open.

In this solo episode — released on my 37th birthday — I walk through the one line that rewired how I see my career, take you through the receipts of everything I’ve actually built in the last eight years, unpack why the highlight-reel version of growth is a trap, and share the new question I’m carrying into this next year instead of the old label.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want is the yes you keep saying no to?

This week I sit down with Janesha Moore — the Philadelphia-based creator behind The Strategic Influencer, Move Moore, and the faith-based jewelry brand The Merciful Collective. Janesha was laid off from a corporate marketing role in 2023 and used that moment to build a multi-brand business that now reaches hundreds of thousands of women. But this conversation isn't about how she built the business. It's about who she's had to become to hold it — and what it actually feels like to be in what she calls a fighting season.

We get into how one yes to skydiving turned into the New York City Marathon and eventually Move Moore, why she believes God gives you assignments no one else can confirm, the “productive distractions” framework she uses to protect her focus, what her DMs have taught her about being an affiliate creator in a world that looks down on them, and the mantra she leans on every day: "I’ma cry, but I’ma continue."

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What if rest and freedom aren't luxuries you have to earn over 40 years — but line items you can budget, plan, and take right now?

This week I sit down with Danica Nelson, a Toronto-based money educator and founder of Liberty Leave, the platform teaching women how to fund career breaks and sabbaticals without going broke. Danica grew up in social community housing raised by a single mother, put herself through university debt-free, and then engineered her own six-month solo sabbatical through Southeast Asia after saving for 18 months. She's on a mission to be "work optional by 45" and she's teaching women how to do the same.

We get into the three money buckets every woman needs to understand, why you can't budget your way out of not making enough money, the grandfather story that convinced her every woman needs a money binder, what slow travel actually looks like when you're not on vacation, and the 5 things to have in place before you take your own career break. And beneath all of it, the deeper thesis: that building wealth is the best form of love you can give yourself.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday 

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday 

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: [email protected]

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG: 

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.