Ep 137: Not Everybody's Life Is a Movie Scene with Adrienne Randle of Evryday Blk Magazine

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

Not everybody's life is a movie scene. That's the whole idea.

Adrienne Randle founded Evryday Blk Magazine, a bi-monthly publication in digital and print, because she wanted something that felt good to read. No gossip, no trauma, no celebrity culture. Just four-generation Black farms, a man who chases waterfalls, and the small local film festivals nobody's covering. It's the next chapter of her Black Owned Business Shopping Guide, which ran from 2023 to 2025, featured 1,175 businesses, and pulled over 3 million views.

What We Talk About

• Why she's a boundary queen: no work on weekends, no work at night, period, and how burnout at year five taught her that
• How she collaborates with other Black-owned businesses, why she pays them, and why "if you don't ask, the answer is no" is her whole approach
• Digital blackfacing, what it is, and how she verifies that every business in the magazine is actually Black-owned
• The unexpected turn: her doomsday case for physical media, and why she wants Black books, CDs, and magazines in the house for when the grid pops

If you love a conversation about building something on your own terms, this episode is for you.

All about Adrienne Randle

You're gonna love Adrienne. She's a whole ball of joy, and she'll tell you if she doesn't have a smile on her face she's not leaving the house. A creative advertising grad and product-based business owner since 2014, she built Addy Rawr into a brand that sold over 100,000 products, including 10,000 journals. Her design mantra: people don't know how it was supposed to look at the end. Now she's putting that same energy into a magazine that goes straight to the source instead of the celebrity.

Things We Mentioned

• Evryday Blk Magazine, free digital subscription and print available for purchase
• The Black Owned Business Shopping Guide, 2023 to 2025, 1,175 businesses
• Addy Rawr, her artist name and previous brand
• The magazine is self-funded, and there's a donation button on the site. A $10 monthly or $50 one-time contribution goes toward stock photos, software, printing, and eventually paying writers.

Chapters:

• 00:07 - Introduction to Black Business
• 00:33 - Introducing Adrienne Randall and Evryday Blk Magazine
• 05:42 - The Journey of Creativity and Business
• 13:05 - The Importance of Collaboration in Entrepreneurship
• 16:36 - The Importance of Work-Life Balance for Entrepreneurs
• 26:51 - Highlighting Everyday Stories
• 32:00 - The Importance of Representation and Transparency in Media
• 37:46 - The Importance of Authentic Representation in Black Media
• 41:44 - Future of Evryday Blk Magazine

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 Adrienne Randle

• Website and subscription
• IG: @addirerawr

Stay Connected

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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 136:Trades Aren't a Backup Plan: Building a Business With Your Hands with Shawn Ellis of Handyman Ellis, LLC

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

His grandfather used to take his quarters and hand them back as tens. Called it magic. Then one summer he said, come work with me and I'll show you what the magic actually is. Shawn was thirteen.

Shawn runs Handyman Ellis LLC in Chicago, providing professional services for homeowners and businesses: mounting, assembly, installations, repairs. About 80% of his work comes from word of mouth. I'm part of that word of mouth. So is my dad, who tells his entire friend group about this man.

What We Talk About

• Why he thinks the trades should be a first option and not a backup plan, and what he tells young people who don't know what to do next
• What separates a professional from somebody who just knows how to fix things, and why the booties on his shoes are part of the answer
• His advice for anyone with a skill who's scared to turn it into a business: do your homework, then start
• The unexpected turn: the one thing in your house he wants you to stop putting off, and he's right, and you should go check it after this

If you love a conversation about building something the honest way, this episode is for you.

All about Shawn

You're gonna love Shawn. He shows up organized, in booties, with an old school playlist going. Mostly self-taught with some classes and certifications along the way, he treats every house he enters like it's his own, and plenty of his clients trust him enough to let him work while they're not home. He's driven by gaining knowledge and passing it on, and he talks about instilling forever skills in his son, who's already asked for his own Handyman Ellis shirt. His stepfather's line, which used to be on his business cards: if it's broke, he can fix it.

Chapters:

• 00:09 - 31 Days of Black Business
• 02:25 - The Journey to Handyman Success
• 11:02 - The Challenges of Being a Handyman
• 19:57 - The Value of Trades in Modern Society
• 29:43 - The Importance of Community for Business Growth
• 34:31 - Entrepreneurship Insights

Things We Mentioned

• Handyman Ellis LLC, professional services for homeowners and businesses. Booking site
• Email: [email protected]
• Serving Chicago and surrounding suburbs
• Services: mounting, assembly, installations, repairs. As he puts it, send him your project and he'll tell you if he can make it come true.

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 Shawn

• https://handymanellis.bestmate.us/
• Email: [email protected]

Stay Connected

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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 135: From a Craft Class to Ten Years in Business with Ticina Williams of Creativiti Custom Designs and Events

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

Ticina Williams started designing her own party supplies because the licensed images never looked like her sons.

She founded Creativiti Custom Designs and Events in Chicago — that's Creativiti with an i, because everybody calls her T and she's the T in Creativiti. It started with a craft class at Michael's she only took because she got dropped from her college courses one summer. Ten years later it's a full-service event planning, consulting, and party supply company, and she hand-makes every product herself.

What We Talk About

• How to actually think about budget when you're hiring an event planner, and why the question isn't meant to trigger you
• Why every successful event needs a program, even a loose one, so your guests aren't sitting there wondering what's happening
• When she started doing in-kind work for community organizations, and the expensive lesson that taught her what to ask for first
• The unexpected turn: her three-year-old asked for a Miami Heat LeBron James birthday party, and figuring out how to make one changed the direction of her whole business

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

All about Ticina Williams

You're gonna love Ticina — she's the hostess with the mostest and she will absolutely kick in at your party uninvited. A mom of four boys and a business school grad, she brings both sides to every event: the administrative planner who wants to know your timeline and your point person, and the creative who hand-crafts the favors, the treat boxes, and the centerpieces. Her online store sells digital party supply downloads featuring Black and brown characters — her NBA 2K favors went viral on Pinterest. Her goal is to pass Creativiti on to one of her sons, all four of whom are business majors.

Chapters:

• 00:08 - Introduction to Black Business Month
• 02:07 - The Journey of Creativiti: From Hobby to Business
• 09:20 - The Birth of a Creative Event Planning Business
• 16:08 - The Evolution of Event Planning
• 22:34 - Incorporating Community Impact in Business
• 26:41 - Understanding Client Budgets
• 33:14 - Successful Event Planning Essentials
• 38:52 - Starting an Online Store: A Journey of Representation
• 47:50 - Building a Legacy Through Creativiti
• 51:53 - Navigating Entrepreneurship During the Pandemic

Things We Mentioned

• Creativiti Custom Designs and Events
• The Creativiti online store, for digital party supply downloads
• Dara's Safari Shower, the 2015 event that started it all
• The Economic Empowerment Summit and the Woodlawn and Washington Park Summits
• SCORE, where she found her first business mentor

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 Ticina Williams

• Find her at Creativiti Custom Designs and Events on Facebook

Stay Connected

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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 134: Semoine Boyer of CocoaLuxe: Routine to Ritual, and Fragrance for When You Can't Get Away

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

She started making these products because she needed somewhere to go when she couldn't actually go anywhere.

Semoine Boyer is the founder of CocoaLuxe Home and Spa: candles, body butters, scrubs, oils, and body sprays, all made with fragrance blends she creates herself. She started making them because she needed downtime from being a wife, a mom to a son with special needs, and a full-time job in IT. She'll tell you plainly she's not a certified perfumer. She just made what she wanted and it worked.

What We Talk About

• The difference between a self-care routine and a self-care ritual, and why she thinks most of us are doing the first one on autopilot
• Caribbean Sunrise, and how a fragrance can take you somewhere you can't afford to fly
• What private label actually means, and how she'll build a whole product line under someone else's brand name
• Why she'd rather eat pork than deal with social media, and what she did about it
• The unexpected turn: she paused this business three separate times for her family, and the year she finally took off to rest is the year it worked

If you love second-act reinventions that don't skip the hard part, this episode is for you.

All about Semoine Boyer

You're gonna love Semoine — she's a full-transparency kind of person, and she'll say so herself before she tells you the thing. Founder of CocoaLuxe Home and Spa, she builds body care and home fragrance with high-quality ingredients and distinctive blends, creating sensory experiences meant to inspire calm, confidence, and connection. She has retail partnerships, private label clients, and wholesale on the way. Her father raised her to give back, and she's working on a way to do that for other small business owners in Prince George's County. Her definition of luxury: rest. Her one ritual she'll never skip: staying hydrated and moisturized, with her own body butter, every single night.

Things We Mentioned

• CocoaLuxe Home and Spa → cocoaluxehs.com
• Find her products at Creators Collective at The Stacks in Navy Yard, DC; Bohemian Black in Annapolis, MD; and Nectar Juice Bar in Crofton, MD
• Private label services — she'll make a product line under your brand
• "Golden" by Jill Scott

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 Semoine Boyer

• IG: @cocoaluxehs
• Website: cocoaluxehs.com

Stay Connected

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More ways to connect

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

Support & Feedback

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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 133: Type C Energy and Design With Soul with Sunni of Sunni Aesthetics.

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

Only about 4% of designers in the US are Black. She named her podcast after that number, and it's gone down since.

Sunni runs Sunni Aesthetics, a creative studio doing branding, creative direction, and visual storytelling. She came up through film production and set decoration in Atlanta, flunked out of design school right before the pandemic, spent quarantine drawing and painting, and taught herself the rest. Six years later, here she is.

What We Talk About

• Why she left set life behind, and what she means when she says money comes back but time doesn't
• How she uses AI as a resource rather than a replacement, and what happens to a brain you stop working out
• Her advice for anyone thinking about design: don't go to school for it yet, watch a YouTube course and see if it's actually for you
• The unexpected turn: the 4% number that named her podcast has dropped to 3.86%, and she has thoughts on why designers are walking away from the field

If you love a conversation about building a creative career on your own terms, this episode is for you.

All about Sunni

You're gonna love Sunni — she's bold, intentional, and soul-aligned, and yes that's her own language for it. Through Sunni Aesthetics she partners with small business owners on branding, web and UX/UI design, graphics, social media, e-commerce, video editing, and email marketing. She also hosts The Four Percent Amplified, a podcast celebrating BIPOC designers and turning up the volume on voices the industry overlooks. Her logo puts her initials together with the sun and the moon, because the sun is identity and the moon is intuition, and she wanted both.

Chapters:

• 00:07 - Introduction to Black Business Month
• 01:54 - Understanding Visual Storytelling
• 11:46 - The Evolution of Storytelling in Design
• 15:05 - Understanding the Emotional Labor in Creative Work
• 22:51 - The Evolution of Design Philosophy
• 31:09 - The Importance of Connection and Community

Things We Mentioned

• Sunni Aesthetics
• The Four Percent Amplified podcast, also on YouTube
• AIGA, where she found one of her mentors
• Consultations are free — she wants to make sure it's a fit before anybody pays

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 Sunni

• IG: @sunniaesthetics
• Sunni Aesthetics
• Podcast: The Four Percent Amplified

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 # 132: Sun Food and Decolonizing What We Eat with Radius of RA's Natural Abundance (noseyAF Classic)

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

This conversation originally aired on Lumpen Radio on July 28, 2025, as Ep #77. Bringing it back for the series.

He'll tell you the box never existed.

Radius is a musician, photographer, chef, and community builder out of Chicago's South Side. He runs ETC Records, publishes photo zines from his travels, co-founded The Love Fridge Chicago, and promotes sun-fired food through RA's Natural Abundance. He came on to talk about decolonizing through food, and we ended up somewhere much bigger.

🍋 Radius is available for hire. Personal chef work, juices, meals, and holistic food guidance through RA's Natural Abundance. He's clear that this is about transitioning into a lifestyle, not a diet program — as he puts it, diet has "die" in it.

What We Talk About

• Sun food versus raw food, and why he says everything we need is already cooked by the sun
• How he starts every day: giving thanks, stretching, and breaking his fast with the most hydrating fruit he can find
• His practical advice for getting off recreational sugar, and why dates and figs do more than you'd think
• Why he calls himself a cultural ambassador rather than an expat, and what it means to actually invest in a place instead of visiting it
• The unexpected turn: what it means that "colon" is inside the word "decolonization," and why the food we eat is as revolutionary a front as any other

If you've ever thought about food as more than something you eat, this one's for you.

Chapters:

• 00:07 - Celebrating Black Business Month

• 02:46 - Introducing Radius: A Multi-Talented Creative

• 08:50 - The Essence of Sun Food and Personal Transformation

• 18:34 - Reflections on Travel and Cultural Identity

• 27:01 - The Concept of Et Cetera in Music

• 32:21 - Introducing Brooklyn Zoned: A New Project

• 37:44 - The Importance of Honesty in Art and Life

• 44:24 - Transitioning to Healthy Eating Habits

• 47:11 - The Importance of Diet and Lifestyle

• 51:48 - Exploring Hydration and Wellness

All about Radius

You're gonna love Radius — he's a limitless-skies kind of person. The name started as a graffiti tag and became everything else. ETC stands for whatever he needs it to: Ear To Chicago, Educate The Children, Express Truth Consistently, Embrace The Circle, Empower The Community. He runs ETC Records, publishes photo zines under Ramón Etc including Brooklyn Zoned, promotes sun-fired plant-based living through RA's Natural Abundance, and co-founded The Love Fridge Chicago, a mutual aid initiative fighting food insecurity through community fridges. He studied with Dr. Aris Latham, the father of gourmet ethical raw food cuisine, in Panama.

Things We Mentioned

• RA's Natural Abundance → @rasnaturalabundance
• ETC Records → etcrecords.com
• Brooklyn Zoned, his photo zine, with Morocco and Mexico editions in the works
• The Love Fridge Chicago
• Dr. Aris Latham and sun-fired cuisine
• Lumpen Radio, where this conversation originally aired

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 Radius

• IG: @radiusetc
• Photography: @ramonetcphoto · ramonetcphoto.com
• RA's Natural Abundance: @rasnaturalabundance
• ETC Records: @etcrecords · etcrecords.com

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

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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 125: We Heal Together with Aya Nikole Cook of Haji Healing Salon

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

Recorded live on Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM

What happens when the person who built the healing space finally has to heal herself?

Aya Nicole Cook built Haji Healing Salon because everything she needed growing up on the South Side required leaving the South Side to find. Ten years later, she's in the middle of what she calls a death portal, undoing a decade of go-go-go and rebuilding the space and herself at the same time.

What We Talk About

• Why the healing at Haji happens out in the open instead of behind private doors, and how watching a stranger nap through acupuncture lowers the barrier for everybody in the room
• What she gave up all at once — caffeine, meat, dairy, gluten, sugar, cannabis — and what being fully present made possible
• The new tea salon: a tech-free space where you check your phone at the door and journal, nap, daydream, or just sit
• The unexpected turn: ten years as a one-woman show nearly took her out, and she wants you to hear the cautionary part

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

All about Aya Nicole Cook

You're gonna love Aya — she's a plant whisperer and sacred spacemaker. Ten years into building Haji Healing Salon in Bronzeville, she's an artist, mother, community herbalist, reiki master, yoga nidra priestess, and death doula who has made acupuncture, herbalism, reiki, and yoga accessible on Chicago's South Side.

Things We Mentioned

• Haji Healing Salon → hajihealing.com — 4448 S Cottage Grove Ave, Chicago
• The Healing Wisdom of Africa by Malidoma Patrice Somé
• Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM → @lumpenradio

Chapters:

• 00:23 - A New Beginning in Chicago
• 01:35 - Building a Business Around Care and Community
• 11:27 - Creating Inclusive Healing Spaces
• 16:33 - Creating Sacred Spaces: The Journey of a Yoga Teacher
• 23:34 - Healing Spaces and the Role of Plants
• 29:55 - The Importance of Community in Healing
• 40:02 - The Vision of a New Space
• 45:00 - Creating a Healing Space: The Design of Haji
• 49:17 - The Healing Space: A New Paradigm
• 53:17 - Transitioning into Elderhood and Balance

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 Aya Nicole Cook

• IG: @hajihealingsalon
• Website: hajihealing.com

Stay Connected

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More ways to connect

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

Support & Feedback

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

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

A Black woman from Mississippi became a Queen Mother in Ghana. It was not on her bingo card.

Alexis "Lexi" Williams founded Aloha Glamour after losing her daughter Lauren Taylor, who was born and died in Hawaii in 2015 while Lexi was stationed there. Everything was black and white for a long time after. When she started seeing color again, she started the business. Every head wrap and every pair of earrings is handmade by artisans in Ghana she's known for years and calls family.

What We Talk About

• Where the name comes from: aloha means both hello and goodbye, and glamour is the confidence you find after life knocks you down
• Her beginner's guide to African fashion — take 80% of what you already wear and add 20% new, and no, you don't have to start with a three-piece suit
• How her artisan relationships started with African print masks during COVID and turned into sewing machines, hired staff, and her picture on the wall as their CEO
• The unexpected turn: what happens when you stop visiting Africa as a tourist and start investing in a community, and what being responsible for a village of 10,000 people actually means

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

Chapters:

• 00:08 - Celebrating Black Business: Aloha Glamour
• 02:47 - The Story Behind Aloha Glamour
• 11:43 - Living in Color: A Journey of Personal Style and Heritage
• 25:54 - The Journey of Aloha Glamour
• 36:28 - Cultural Connections: Bridging Communities
• 39:01 - Transitioning Aloha Glamour: The Next Chapter

All about Alexis "Lexi" Williams

You're gonna love Lexi — she's a veteran turned Queen Mother who will tell you to just start with the earrings. She serves as Nkosuohemaa, Development Queen Mother of Pokrom Nsabaa village in Ghana, and founded the Healing Crown Alliance Foundation, a grief support and diaspora cultural development nonprofit. She's the creator of Protect Your Crown, a cultural education program running in schools, churches, and corporate spaces, and holds the title of Ms. Black Ghana International Ambassador 2026, competing at the MBIA International Pageant in Belize this August. Aloha Glamour has been featured by Forbes and Oprah and received funding from Beyoncé. She describes the brand as a love letter to Black women who have survived something, and asks: what's the color of your story?

Things We Mentioned

• Aloha Glamour
• Healing Crown Alliance Foundation
• Protect Your Crown cultural education program
• Pokrom Nsabaa, Ghana, where she serves as Nkosuohemaa
• MBIA International Pageant, Belize, August 2026

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 Alexis "Lexi" Williams

• IG: @alohaglamour
• Aloha Glamour

Stay Connected

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More ways to connect

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

Support & Feedback

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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 130: Day 13 Explaining Investing Through a TJ Maxx Run with Nadia C. Vanderhall of Brands + Bands

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

She lost her job in the Great Recession and drained her 401(k) before she knew the first thing about money.

Nadia C. Vanderhall learned it the hard way, then learned it the real way working in product marketing at a bank, where she kept noticing the products weren't built for the people who needed them most. She started posting what she was learning on Facebook. The first big one explained how to invest by walking through building a wig. Now she runs The Brands + Bands Strategy Group and calls herself the girl in the finance bro lane.

What We Talk About

• Why the 50/30/20 budgeting rule doesn't work when housing eats your whole budget, and what to do instead
• The Dash: the roadmap between the wallet you have now and the wealth on your vision board, and why financial planning should really be life planning
• Why she says stop calling money hard, and how to reframe budgeting as expense planning
• The unexpected turn: she was an overdraft queen too, and she breaks down exactly how to stop — push notifications, splitting your accounts, and money dates with your own app

If you love a good analogy and a plan you can actually follow, this episode is for you.

All about Nadia C. Vanderhall

You're gonna love Nadia — she's a marketer's brain in a financial planner's chair. Founder of The Brands + Bands Strategy Group, she's been featured in Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, and Essence, and she's gone from working in financial services to becoming one herself. She builds budgets for people who hate building them, audits the ones that aren't budgeting, and answers your one-off money questions without shaming you. She was making $10.71 an hour when she got laid off, so when she says she's been there, she means it.

Things We Mentioned

• The Brands + Bands Strategy Group
• The wig video that started it all
• Her budgeting workshop, active now, and her budgeting workbook
• The Dash method, available through her retainer service
• Her budget build, budget audit, and Ask Me Anything services
• Her emergency fund plan and guide workbook
• Her newsletter, which she describes as a voice memo in written form
• Her YouTube video on her own money fumbles

Chapters:

• 00:10 - Introduction to Black Business Month

• 00:57 - Navigating the Financial Landscape: A New Perspective

• 15:42 - Navigating the Birthday Dinner Trend

• 21:53 - The Importance of Financial Planning

• 33:11 - Navigating Overdrafts and Financial Awareness

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 Nadia C. Vanderhall

• IG: @thebrandsandbands
• Brands and Bands Website

Stay Connected

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More ways to connect

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

Support & Feedback

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⭐ 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

Episode # 129 Dark Fantasy, Black Authors, and a Toxic Hottie or Two with Cheryl Hodges of The Obsidian Archive

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

She decided to write a book. Then figured she should probably start reading again. Then opened a bookstore.

Cheryl Hodges kept watching the girlies on Instagram open romance-only bookshops and realized nobody had built one for dark fantasy and speculative worlds. So she did, in January of this year, while writing her own novel, working a full-time job, and raising a kid. Indie authors and Black authors in the genre are the whole point.

What We Talk About

• What dark fantasy actually is, why Maleficent counts, and why all our millennial fantasy obsessions trace back to Disney
• How she decides which books to carry, what she's looking for in author submissions, and why she'll point you to a different bookstore if you're not a fit
• What indie authors are still fighting for against publishers with real marketing budgets
• The unexpected turn: her nonprofit plans are about literacy as comprehension, shaped by teaching her own son to read and by knowing a grown man who can't

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

Chapters:

• 00:10 - Celebrating Black Business Month
• 03:27 - The Journey to Opening a Bookstore
• 18:01 - The Struggle of Indie Authors in Today's Market
• 25:55 - Literacy Initiatives and Challenges
• 34:24 - Launching a Bookstore and Publishing House
• 38:44 - The Vision for the Future Bookstore

All about Cheryl Hodges

You're gonna love Cheryl — she's a Brooklyn library kid turned bookstore owner. Founder of The Obsidian Archive, an online bookstore for dark fantasy and speculative worlds, and author of Crown of the Morning Star, a dark mythic fantasy that follows Lucifer after the fall. She reads six books a month on her Kindle and listens to four or five more. Book two, a vampire duology following Lucifer's son Cain, drops at Halloween. Where she's headed: a brick and mortar with a cafe, a nonprofit running book drives and book clubs, and the biggest selection of indie titles she can build.

Things We Mentioned

• The Obsidian Archive → theobsidianarchive.org
• Crown of the Morning Star by Cheryl Hodges, available on Kindle and paperback
• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, her beginner's guide to fantasy pick
• The Daggermouth pre-order campaign, and Lee Rivers
• Her banned books section, including Animal Farm and 1984

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 Cheryl Hodges

• IG: @the_obsidian_archive_bookshop
• Website: theobsidianarchive.org

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Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex

Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam

Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick