Recorded live on Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM, Saturday, September 12, 2026

A teacher looked at her painting in front of the whole class and called it a knowledgeable failure. She took it as a compliment.

Chicago painter Megan Williamson has been painting for decades and is nowhere near finished figuring out what painting can do. From a hundred Zoom portraits to a room full of circus figures, her work is about looking, searching, and following an idea wherever it goes.

What We Talk About

• What a teacher meant when he called her painting a knowledgeable failure, and why she now tells that story to her own students
• Why the circus, and what an E.E. Cummings quote and a nun have to do with her new exhibition
• How a hundred Zoom portraits during the pandemic changed what she knew about painting people
• The unexpected turn: what she does when she has no idea what's going to happen in the studio, which is more often than you'd think

If you love hearing an artist talk honestly about not knowing, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:12 - Live, Unedited Conversation Begins

• 01:12 - Interview Begins — Megan Williamson, Chicago Painter

• 12:54 - Studio Companion: My Dog Tao Teo

• 20:19 - From Classroom to Studio: How Teaching Shapes Her Art

• 30:43 - Ad Break — The Inner Guide: Finding Answers Within

• 42:11 - Learning to Be Brave — Childhood, Horses, and Early Lessons

• 48:44 - From Coloring Pages to a Calling: Teacher Memories

• 59:30 - Closing Remarks — Exhibition Details & How to Follow Megan

All about Megan Williamson

You're gonna love Megan!

She's a painter who is genuinely still curious after decades of doing this. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and this October she has a solo exhibition at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, titled Damn Everything But the Circus, after an E.E. Cummings line. She studied at Knox College and the New York Studio School, teaches landscape painting, and keeps a studio here in Chicago.

Things We Mentioned

• Damn Everything But the Circus, Swope Art Museum, opening October
• Her hundred Zoom portraits project
• Knox College and the New York Studio School
• Gabriel Laderman, the teacher behind the knowledgeable failure
• Risha Brown Inner Guide Podcast

Connect with Megan Williamson

• IG: @meganwilliamson_art
• Megan’s Website

Stay Connected

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Behind the Mic

noseyAF is a project of Stephanie Graham's art practice — photography, film, and documentary work rooted in community and curiosity. → See the work

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex | Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam | Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 149: All That and a Bag of Chips: 31 Days of Black Business Reflections

No guest. No theme song. Just me, a cup of coffee, and whatever came out of my mouth. 🖤

We made it. Thirty-one days, thirty-one Black business owners, every single day of August. And then two days into September, because that's how it goes.

This one is unscripted. I sat down and talked off the top of my head about what this series actually took, what it reminded me of, and the thing I realized halfway through that I'm still sitting with.

What I get into

• How this started, and why Denzel Turner of Black Fridays is the reason the whole series exists
• What it actually took: the intake forms, the rescheduling, the Chicago storms that knocked our power out, and editing every single episode myself
• The thing I realized halfway through — that I've been making oral archives my whole practice, from So This One Guy to The Black Kid Table, and this is just the first time in podcast form
• Do it scared. Every single story in this series had a moment where the thing almost didn't happen.
• Have friends who see you. Several of these businesses exist because a friend kept asking when they were going to start.
• Word of mouth as a whole thread of the month, and why relationship marketing kept coming up
• And the last thing: I really am all that and a bag of chips. I did that.

Chapters:

• 00:01 - Introduction to Nosey AF Conversations
• 02:21 - The Journey of Black Business Month
• 05:15 - Transitioning to New Perspectives
• 08:46 - Overcoming Fear and Embracing Support
• 11:55 - The Power of Relationships in Marketing
• 13:55 - Gratitude and Reflection

Thank you

To Off the Grid for partnering on this series and believing in it before it existed. To every guest who gave me their time, their story, and their trust. To Queen Lex and Freddie Bam Fam, whose theme song I played every single day this month and still love I got my money's worth. To Emma McGoldrick for the cover art. And to you, for listening, sharing, buying, booking, and being nosey with me.

Where to start if you're catching up

There's a therapist in this series. A credit expert. A handyman. An economist. A woman who will take you to Ghana. A woman who will make you a swimsuit that fits. A bookstore for the dark fantasy girlies. Thats just a start, there is someone there for everyone!

Go be somebody's first customer. Or their second. Or their five thousandth.

All 31 episodes → noseyaf.com

This series was supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 148: Serious Training for Everyday People with Sean Armstead of Phenomenal Fitness

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

He trained 33 people last Saturday. Starting at 4 in the morning.

Sean Armstead is a former Marine Corps infantry officer who served in the Persian Gulf, and he's been running Phenomenal Fitness since 1997. The slogan hasn't changed in almost thirty years: serious training for everyday people. His whole book of business comes from referrals. He calls it old money.

What We Talk About

• Successful aging, what it actually means, and why he's training you for the body you'll have at 70 rather than the one you had at 25
• The five pillars: structural integrity, movement skill, work capacity, body composition, and power
• What it's really like your first day, and why he says if you get sick twenty minutes in, that's the trainer's fault
• The unexpected turn: he started with no certification, no business background, and no idea what he was doing. A mentor kept telling him to burn the ship.

If you love a conversation with somebody who's been doing it long enough to know, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:13 - Reflecting on the Black Business Series
• 04:49 - Building a Team: Lessons from 30 Years in Business
• 12:35 - Transitioning to Entrepreneurship
• 17:52 - Understanding Fitness and Aging
• 38:01 - Engaging Clients: The Importance of Retention and Revenue
• 44:47 - Building a Sustainable Business Model

All about Sean Armstead

You're gonna love Sean. He's a former Marine Corps infantry officer turned strength and conditioning coach who describes himself as a triple threat leader: know the way, go the way, show the way. He founded Phenomenal Fitness in 1997 and has been a brick and mortar gym owner since 1999, operating out of the South Loop. His model is semi-private training, which keeps sessions around $50 rather than the $120 to $130 that private training typically runs. He writes his first name in lowercase to remind himself of humility and gratitude.

Things We Mentioned

• Phenomenal Fitness, South Loop Chicago → new website coming, with free exercise and programming content
• Serious training for everyday people, the slogan since 1997
• The five pillars: structural integrity, movement skill, work capacity, body composition, power
• The four principles: mindset, muscle, metcon, modification of lifestyle
• Semi-private training, averaging $50 a session

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Phenomenal Fitness

• Website
• IG: @phenomenalfit1

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 147: Vintage Is a Form of Luxury with Jennifer Kelly-Nichols of Vintage Frills

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

She was too scared to sign a lease, so she bought a short school bus and painted it pink instead. She'll tell you she cheated a little.

Jennifer Kelly spent years as the logistical backbone at Chanel, Tiffany's, and Neiman Marcus before burning out during COVID. Now she runs Vintage Frills, a Chicago boutique organized entirely by color: a red room, a blue room, a neutrals room she called the dungeon in her business plan. People fly in from around the world to shop it. The pink bus is still running pop-ups.

What We Talk About

• The difference between business and luxury business, and what luxury retail taught her about making people feel taken care of
• Where she actually sources: estate sales, not thrift stores, and why Hyde Park has the best ones in the city
• Her honest advice for anyone about to open an online boutique, including the friend who researched herself out of ever starting
• The unexpected turn: she says people move too fast and lose everything. She wanted Hyde Park first and didn't get it, and going slow is the reason she's still here five years later.

If you love a conversation with somebody who tells you the truth about the hard parts, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:06 - Introduction to the 31 Days of Black Business Series
• 07:52 - Starting Vintage Frills: A Journey into Luxury Resale
• 11:47 - The Transition to Entrepreneurship
• 26:42 - The Art of Sourcing Vintage Luxury
• 29:21 - Navigating the Challenges of Starting an Online Boutique
• 37:44 - The Slow and Steady Journey of Business

All about Jennifer Kelly

You're gonna love Jennifer. She grew up around resale and retail and turned that into a career at some of the biggest luxury brands in the world before building her own. Vintage Frills hit five years this past July and has been recognized by American Express and Business Insider. She started with Vintage Fleet, a short school bus she painted pink and had graffiti'd, which still does pop-ups and, in her words, saves them from financial peril. She's a curvy cutie herself, so yes, there are plus sizes, and yes, she'll pull things from the back for you.

Things We Mentioned

• Vintage Frills → https://www.vintagefrillschicago.com/
• Vintage Fleet, the pink school bus, still doing pop-ups including Logan Square Farmers Market
• estatesales.net, where she sources
• American Express and Business Insider features

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Jennifer Kelly

• Website:https://www.vintagefrillschicago.com/
• IG: @vintagefrills
• Visit Vintage Frills at 2846 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 146: Your Customers Are Doing Economics Whether You Are or Not with Dr. Kristi-Warren Scott Bishop of Verity Consulting

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

She was going to call herself the corniest economist. Her friend said no, you're the baddest economist I know. She was terrified to use it. Her friend said do it scared.

Dr. Kristi-Warren Scott Bishop is a PhD economist and the founder of Verity Consulting, which she launched in fall of 2025 after spending over a decade doing economics across the federal government. She started it because she was tired of watching businesses make what she could plainly see were bad decisions.

What We Talk About

• What an economist actually does for a business, and why there's no wrong time to bring one in, whether you're just starting or something just feels off
• What supporting Black business actually looks like from an economic perspective, at both the micro and macro level
• How Hump Day Economics started, and why she couldn't find a credentialed economist explaining why the eggs cost what they cost
• The unexpected turn: she's not a subject matter expert in your field and doesn't try to be. She brings the tool. You bring the business.

If you love a conversation that makes something big feel usable, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:07 - Celebrating Black Business Month
• 05:08 - Understanding Consumer Economics
• 13:20 - Understanding the Role of Data in Consumer Behavior
• 23:31 - Engaging Economists: Timing and Strategies for Entrepreneurs
• 32:21 - Understanding Consumer Values in the Black Community
• 46:34 - Transitioning to Business Insights

All about Kristi Bishop

You're gonna love Kristi. Dr. Kristi-Warren Scott Bishop translates how economics shows up in ordinary decisions, from why the gas tank waits until morning to why grocery prices feel different than the receipt says. Under the banner The Baddest Economist You Know, she turns ideas like present bias and revealed preference into weekly conversations her audience actually finishes watching. She's spent over a decade in federal economics work, including at the CDC and the Social Security Administration, and now runs Verity Consulting, a boutique economic consultancy helping consumer-facing organizations understand the economics driving their customers' behavior. Verity offers two tiers of monthly subscription with a three-month minimum, plus larger project engagements. Their first big one wrapped in April for a Black-owned spirits brand in Prince George's County.

Things We Mentioned

• Verity Consulting → verityconsultingllc.com · [email protected]
• Hump Day Economics, her weekly Instagram series
• Courtney Walden of Chicago Massage, her best friend and one of her clients
• The K-shaped economy, and what it explains about the airlines

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Kristi Bishop

• Website: verityconsultingllc.com
• Email: [email protected]
• IG: @verityecon

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

📣 Share noseyAF with a friend who needs to hear this

Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 145: Leadership Without Burnout with Janelle Alba Garner of Tanglaw Advisory

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

How do you keep a mission alive without burning out the people carrying it?

Janelle Alba Garner is the founder of Tanglaw Advisory. She spent years supporting founders doing genuinely great work and watched them sacrifice themselves to do it. She doesn't think that's the deal. Tanglaw is a Tagalog word meaning guiding light, and that's roughly the job.

What We Talk About

• What regenerative leadership actually means, and why she shows up to meetings in a hoodie rather than a three-piece suit
• Why an outside advisor hears things from your staff that you never will, and what that unlocks
• How hard it is to slow down when everybody around you seems to be moving faster
• The unexpected turn: this is her third business, and the one that finally felt right started when a client made her dread Mondays until she remembered she could just fire her

If you love a conversation about building something that doesn't cost you everything, this episode is for you.

All about Janelle Alba Garner

You're gonna love Janelle. She's a strategic advisor working on a version of social impact where organizations can sustain both the mission and the people serving it. Her point of view comes from a decade inside mission-driven organizations and from becoming a founder herself, which is how she learned what it costs to carry a mission that's outgrown the structure holding it. Alongside the advisory practice she runs Tanglaw Collective, the community and philanthropic arm, offering pro bono and low-cost support to community-based organizations on Chicago's South and West Sides: office hours, quarterly partnerships, workshops, monthly volunteer days, and resources.

Things We Mentioned

• Tanglaw Advisory → tanglawadvisory.com · [email protected]
• Tanglaw Collective, the community arm
• Monthly community volunteer days, third Saturday, with partner organizations
• Her monthly small-group conversations on a single topic, unrecorded, open to whoever shows up
• She's on LinkedIn, where she describes herself as yelling into the void about taking a lunch break

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Janelle Alba Garner

• Website: tanglawadvisory.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelle-jasmine/

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

📣 Share noseyAF with a friend who needs to hear this

Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 144: Ten Toes Down and Chasing Goals with Rob Marley of Stay Focus Society

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

Self-motivated. Determination. Commitment. Those are the three stars on the logo, and they're not decoration.

Rob Marley was going through the worst of it around 2010. No support system, no outlet. He kept telling himself two words to get through the day, and then figured a whole community of people probably needed them too. He didn't know graphic design or computers. He started by painting the words on t-shirts by hand.

What We Talk About

• The trip that started it: he got on the bus at 119th, rode downtown to an art school he'd never seen, and asked strangers for directions the whole way
• What happened when he tried to sell his first shirts to family and friends, and what Instagram taught him about who his customers actually were
• Why he says be careful who you tell your ideas to, and what a real community around your business looks like instead
• The unexpected turn: he's building a workout community now too, running activations in the park, because losing his focus physically taught him something about keeping it everywhere else

If you love origin stories that don't skip the scary parts, this episode is for you.

All about Rob Marley

You're gonna love Rob. He's a father, a creator, and a visionary who built a Chicago clothing line on focus, positivity, and persistence. He had a Hyde Park store from late 2019 through early 2024, which means he opened it weeks before the pandemic and kept it going anyway. He's spent years doing pop-ups and meeting people directly, block by block, in West Pullman, Chatham, South Shore, and Pilsen. He's now relocating to a new appointment-only showroom called 5113, with a new website to match.

Things We Mentioned

• Stay Focus Society
• 5113, the new appointment-only showroom, coming soon
• The goal chasing shirt
• His coat drive, collecting coats, hoodies, socks, and hats
• His upcoming workout activation in the park

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Rob Marley

• IG: @robmarley_stayfocussociety
• Website

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 143: Coaching Is Not a Meritocracy with Serena Hicks

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

Heads up: this conversation touches on grief and family loss right up front.

You might have a life coach. Your life coach also has a life coach. Serena is who the coaches call.

Serena Hicks got pushed out of a corporate job at 40. Two weeks later her older brother died of cancer, thirteen months from diagnosis. She was broke, grieving, and living paycheck to paycheck after what she calls a phenomenal career. Then she found coaching. She's made over $3 million in the six years since, and $400,000 of that came before she was ever certified.

What We Talk About

• How she found her first coach by Googling "how do you know how to charge people," and what she said to get in the door with $1,500 she barely had
• Why the low barrier of entry into coaching is a feature, not a bug, and what she thinks would happen if it required a license
• Why 85% of coaches are doing consultations wrong, and what a container actually is
• The unexpected turn: she filed bankruptcy in 2008 and thought it disqualified her from being a business coach. Then she realized it's exactly why she's good at it.

If you love a conversation with somebody who will tell you the whole truth about money, this episode is for you.

All about Serena Hicks

You're gonna love Serena. She's a business coach who mostly coaches other coaches, and she's direct in a way that's rare on this subject. She'll tell you her private coaching is $20K and her programs start at $3,000. She'll tell you she borrowed from family who didn't understand what she was doing. She'll tell you people default on payment plans and that's just part of it. Her whole philosophy: business as a game to play and a spiritual experience, not a scoreboard where revenue decides whether you're successful. She helps people recognize how good they already are and then monetize it.

Things We Mentioned

• serenahicks.com — spelled like the tennis player
• Consultation Closer Camp, her program on sales calls and discovery calls
• The Life Coach School and the model
• Abraham Hicks, no relation, but an early influence
• Her book in progress, about her father's brain injury and the legal fight that followed

Chapters:

• 00:22 - Celebrating Black Business Month: An Entrepreneur's Journey
• 00:57 - Turning Points: From Grief to Growth
• 21:01 - The Journey into Coaching
• 23:31 - Exploring Money Mindset and Its Implications
• 33:00 - The Journey of Business Coaching: From Bankruptcy to Empowerment

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Serena Hicks

• Website: serenahicks.com
• IG: @xoxoserenahicks

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

📣 Share noseyAF with a friend who needs to hear this

Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 142: Sustainable Swimwear That Actually Fits with Tiffany Asamoah of BOLD Swim

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

She went looking for a swimsuit before a vacation. Nothing past a size large. Nobody in the marketing looked like her.

Tiffany Asamoah found a tailor, watched her make one, and started asking better questions. BOLD Swim is sustainable swimwear designed to fit and feel good in and out of the water, and it's since expanded into underwear, accessories, and a scarf collection with an exclusive print. She's been in Madewell, Macy's online, and Walmart online.

What We Talk About

• What sustainability actually means in manufacturing, what greenwashing looks like, and why a four dollar shirt costs somebody something
• Why there's a size ten and a twelve but never an eleven, and what it takes technically to change that
• How her customers taught her the swimwear was also underwear and shapewear, and how that changed the brand
• The unexpected turn: the biggest thing new business owners get wrong is thinking the website and the product are the business

If you love a conversation that changes how you shop, this episode is for you.

All about Tiffany Asamoah

You're gonna love Tiffany. She's a former child model turned sustainable fashion founder, a yogi, and a July Fourth baby who grew up with a pool in the backyard. She came up through a corporate sales and leadership career before starting BOLD Swim, and she built the brand around a simple standard: as many bodies as possible, materials that aren't chemically treated, and a supply chain she can actually account for. Her Substack documents the unglossy version of founding a swimwear company.

Things We Mentioned

• BOLD Swim
• Her Substack, on the misadventures of a swimwear founder
• Their Instagram, restarted after the original got hacked
• Law Roach on repeating outfits
• UN sustainability goals for the fashion industry
• Available at Madewell, Macy's online, Walmart online, and retailers in the UK

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction to the Black Business Month Series
• 00:43 - Tiffany Asamoah and Bold Swim: A Journey into Sustainable Fashion
• 11:26 - The Journey of Bold Swim: From Concept to Reality
• 16:38 - The Evolution of Swimwear Design
• 22:34 - Representation in Fashion: A New Approach to Inclusivity
• 34:07 - The Journey of Entrepreneurship
• 42:46 - Sustainable Fashion: The Impact of Consumer Behavior
• 44:22 - Sustainable Fashion Practices

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Tiffany Asamoah

• Website: www.BOLDSwim.com
• IG: @bold_swim
• Substack

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

More ways to connect

• Email: [email protected]
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported; thank you for being here. 💛🫶🏾

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

📣 Share noseyAF with a friend who needs to hear this

Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick

Ep 141: Split Ends Are the Devil with Charita Golden of Golden Tresses

Part of noseyAF's 31 Days of Black Business series 🖤

She wants you to love the hair you have, not the hair you wish you had.

Charita Golden is the natural hairstylist behind Golden Tresses here in Chicago, and full disclosure, she is my actual hairstylist. So I went into this a little nervous, because if I mess it up I still have to go sit in her chair. She's been natural for over 25 years, since before it was a movement, and she's been in somebody's hair since she was about ten.

What We Talk About

• The hair myth she wants dead: that you don't need your ends trimmed. No product is going to do the work a haircut does.
• How to tell which hair advice on social media is for you, and the one thing to check before you try anything you saw in a video
• Why your relationship with your stylist should be a partnership, and what happens when either side treats the other like the help
• Why she won't put a relaxer in anybody's hair, ever, and what she says to clients who ask
• The unexpected turn: her advice to young stylists isn't about technique at all. It's customer service, and she'll tell you why mediocre stylists stay booked while talented ones can't keep a client.

If you love a conversation that changes how you take care of yourself, this episode is for you.

All about Charita Golden

You're gonna love Charita. She's a Chicago native, a mother, a licensed natural hair care professional, and an educator. She comes from a long line of women with natural hair down their backs, and she's been braiding and pressing since she was a kid because her mama kept sending her little sister outside with ratty ponytails. She didn't go pro until her thirties, and now she specializes in natural hair because she wants there to be a space that's actually built for it. She wants us to let our hair be great in its own lane, technical term texture, and she wants us to love hard on it rather than tolerate it.

Things We Mentioned

• Golden Tresses → book at goldentresses.booksy.com
• Her advice on hair videos: only take it if the hair looks like yours when it's wet
• The word "nappy," and why she says naps are just curls that haven't been combed
• Satin bonnets, satin-lined hoods, and the satin roller she wishes she'd invented

Chapters:

• 00:07 - Introduction to the 31 Days of Black Business Series
• 04:08 - Understanding Natural Hair Care
• 09:34 - Understanding Hair Care Misconceptions
• 19:45 - The Complexity of Natural Hair Care
• 29:35 - Customer Service in the Beauty Industry
• 40:54 - Embracing Natural Beauty: A Conversation on Hair Care and Self-Love

This series is supported by Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing their clients. Find them at offthegrid.fun 🖤

Connect with Charita Golden

• Book an consultation or appointment: goldentresses.booksy.com

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick