Buzz Editor

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Buzz Interviews Kristen Bullard of Full Bloom

I grew up in Newport, Arkansas, a small town in Northeast, Arkansas. There was a reputable florist in our town named Purdy’s that always gave excellent customer service. I watched how the owner, Mr. John Purdy, would say, “I will personally see to it your order is taken care of.” When he said that, it made me feel like he appreciated my business and I was important. I have always remembered that and use it frequently now because every customer deserves excellent service and every customer IS very important to me.

I also had two classmates,twins, that had a successful florist. In 2012 one of the twins passed away suddenly. I wanted to help my friend, the surviving twin, Shelly, keep the business open so I did the research and created a business plan, however, it just wasn’t a viable option with me living seven hours away. It stayed with me though. I was at home for a few more years raising my stepkids, Taylor and Dawson. My husband and I felt it was important for me to be available for them, so I gladly put my career on hold to be there for them.

My background had been in consulting small and medium-sized businesses and also running a mortgage company, so it was a natural next step to own my own business. I still researched and tweaked the business plan I had created in 2012, then the day came… I tried to order a corsage for my stepsons Jr. Prom. I called several places and they either were no longer taking orders or were very expensive (to be fair, he decided to go two weeks before the event!)

Nonetheless, I saw a need and decided it was time to put my plan into action. It took six months to find a location in Celina, but I had made up my mind I was moving forward and we opened in December 2018 on the Celina Square. We outgrew our space and relocated to Frisco and are very excited for Full Bloom’s future! We are now in a warehouse/office space, which allows us to serve our customers much, much better!

Buzz Interviews Angela Webb of Angela Webb Photography

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It has always been a dream of mine to own my own magazine. Growing up, I had a lot of single parent household, yet ambitious group of friends. My plan was to tell their story and get them exposure because I felt people needed to hear their story. Also, like any other person standing in the check-out line at the grocery store, I enjoyed the creative images and reading editorials about upcoming people and A list celebrities in magazines. As I was making the decision throughout college of what I wanted to do, photography was just a hobby. I purchased my first camera, as a birthday present to myself, at 19; I never imagined it would lead me to Dallas, TX. I am originally from Monroe, Louisiana. In 2013, I began my journey at The Art Institute of Dallas where I found my niche for fashion photography. I assisted with fashion students preparing their senior portfolios by doing fairly wide production shoots on location or in the studio. It was in 2017 after I graduated that I began to work more with local fashion designers, hairstylist, and wardrobe stylist to create content for their brands.

Buzz Interviews Andrew Chartrand of SoAndSoFilms

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My passion for being a content creator all started back when I was in high school. I would make short films with friends to post on YouTube, which eventually lead me to create SoAndSoFilms. After some time of doing this, my work began to get noticed and was picked up by a few clients that helped me get to where I am today. All of these clients were located in the heart of Atlanta, so I knew that where I needed to be to better service their needs.

Buzz Interviews Detrich Swain of Black Creative Mind, LLC

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Hello, I hope everyone reading this is being fully blessed with prosperity. Also thank you to Buzz Magazine for this opportunity and platform. So, I got my start as a kid born and raised in Windsor NC. I have had a love for music for as long as I can remember. I developed a natural love for music and because it was rampant in my family. I’ve been writing rap music since about 12 years old. I performed at my high school talent show and participated in rap cyphers with my friends around the city. My hometown doesn’t have a lot of outlets to critique my craft so I was never able to take my music to the next level. I moved to Raleigh NC after graduating high school and lived there for 12 years. I became an adult while living there but I never lost my love for music. I would continue to write verses and songs whenever thoughts hit me. I am 40 years old and I still have all my rhyme tablets since I was a kid. I met my wife Curtrina in Raleigh NC and we had 3 kids together. Though I was getting older my love for music never left and I continued to write but never recorded in a studio. My family and I moved to Savannah Ga in 2011. After some time the wife and I had another child and I worked diligently to buy a home for my family and to put us in a better living situation. While working at a large company in Savannah Ga that offered tuition reimbursement I took advantage of it and completed my Bachelors In Business Management and my Masters in Business Administration by the age of 39. I accomplished this while working long hours and being a husband and father. I would get off of work at 10:30pm and go home and work on schoolwork all night until morning. I would shower and go to class in the morning then back to work with no sleep in 24 hours. I made this sacrifice because I wanted to better me and my family’s life and set an example for my children. While working on this job I met Jeremy Hagan and developed a friendship. Through this friendship we learned that we both had a mutual love for music. He took me to the studio for the first time and we have been recording music every since. We both got tired of working 9-5’s and wanted to pursue our own dreams of making music and become entrepreneurs, so we left our jobs and started our own music label. So at 40 years of age I have 2 degrees and a music label that we recently got LLC’d. I achieved all of this after my 30’s, so I say that not to brag but I hope to inspire others that age should not dictate what you want to do in life. It’s all about your mental, your drive and your ambition to succeed and most importantly keeping God first. My goal is to be inspirational and give hope and to show people goals and dreams can be achieved at any age. I also want to make age appropriate rap for my age group because I feel there isn’t much rap music out here for us to listen to and I want to fill that void. I feel soul, introspective lyrics, creativity and storytelling is not as prevalent in rap music anymore and I want to bring that aspect to the forefront again. I’ve always felt that I have a gift and a purpose to do more in life and I want to help raise a generation of young black men and give them some guidance by giving them knowledge and being an example to them. I really feel I can accomplish this through music because music is the one uniting voice that brings people from all walks of life together. I’m aiming to make history and be the first or one of the first ones to enter the rap game at 40 and be very successful at it. This will give others with doubts a model to look at and show them it can be accomplished. I’m confident in my music, because there is no age limit on music. When other fields of entertainment like sports limits you by getting older, music can be written and performed at any age. I have a great gift for writing almost anything so I pray this skill set takes me places. I have performed at shows, been in music videos and I have done various interviews and I have music on major streaming services. I just want to tell the readers to dream big, invest in yourself, plan, work hard and keep God first and your thoughts and dreams will come to fruition no matter your age. I am excited to do what I am doing now at my age instead of my early twenties because I feel I am more mature to handle what comes with success now than what I would have been early on.

Buzz Interviews Gregory Washington of Mind of a Hustler (book)

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Some years ago, while traveling on my motorcycle at 130 mph on an infamous Atlanta road, I hit a light post. Riskily, the pace of my life mirrored the speed of my motorcycle. Some years later, I received a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking that devastated me. Unbeknownst to me, two of my most tragic experiences would change the trajectory of my life for the better. I want readers of my new book, Mind of a Hustler, to understand that it’s never too late – even after making life-altering mistakes – for redemption.

While in prison, God told me that I would write a book to encourage others who chose similar paths as my own. Out of obedience, I did. They may not be drug dealers or traffickers; however, their mentalities and choices may not align with who they were created to be. Mind of a Hustler offers a sense of hope for those who believe their lives are beyond repair; even after making damaging decisions, restoration is realizable.

Buzz Interviews Charlotte Kindred of Charlotte Kindred Photography

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It all started at church, really, I’ve always enjoyed photography, since I was very young and received my first Kodak camera for Christmas, But a few years ago, I became fascinated by the images of the services and events that were shared on social media by my church. There was something about the joy and emotion that was captured in those images that just tugged at me and pulled me in.

It was then that I became serious about photography. I wanted to be able to create images like that, images that made others feel something. I know that might sound like a cliché, but that’s the reality of it. So, I joined the media team at church, bought a DSLR camera and began to learn as much as I could about photography. Some (mostly my family) might say that I became a bit obsessed with it all and I really can’t disagree with them too much. I just found a passion for it that I can’t describe.

I began by working alongside our church photographer, Ken Miller, and I learned from him how to shoot in low light situations. It was, and still can be, challenging because we are not able to use any flash in the church. Those were my first lessons and has proven to be my most valuable source of photography training. I also invested in additional education, taking photography and lighting classes, both online and in-person, and attended several workshops. And all along the way… Practice, practice, practice. I loved it!

After a while, I started getting inquiries from people outside of my family to take their pictures or shoot an event for them. At the encouragement of my husband, I decided to turn my hobby into a business. That was nearly three years ago.

Buzz Interviews Jazz Thorpe of Summer Daze Beauty Brand

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Summer Daze started as a vision/dream. I can distinctively remember, me and my roommate was having a conversation about our future and I just said it. I said one day I’m going to start my own skin care line. I strongly believe me speaking it and believing in those words, brought me to starting my business.
About two years prior to that conversation, I started mixing natural sugar scrubs and moving towards natural skincare. I noticed that my skin did not work well high chemical contented skin products. My skin would have underlined dark spots and chemical burns that left my face feeling dry and rough. After my initial use of the natural products, my skin started to improve immensely. I noticed little to no bumps every week and my skin kept moisture for days.
During my senior year of college, a lot of people would ask me about my skincare routine. I would tell them that I made my own products, in which the conversation would always end in “Girl, you need to sale that.” So, I took the advice, started researching, and asking questions on the most common issues that people had when it came to their skincare. I wanted to create a company that everyone could relate to. So, on July 7th, 2019, in Macon, GA, Summer Daze Beauty Brand was formed on the basis of creating a natural skincare line for all ages, genders, and ethnicity.

Buzz Interviews Nicole Martinez of Brand New Beauty

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guess you can say I have been a serial entrepreneur since the age of seven. I bypassed the whole lemonade stand idea and catapulted right to door-to-door sales with my own handmade products. I suppose self-doubt is something I’ve never really suffered from. Growing up, I was a unique child who was always getting into something — from acting to creating documentaries, then getting into computers to express my creative ways to the world. “Sit down somewhere” is something I always heard from my grandma but still, to this day, I cannot sit down.

However, just as most do, I followed the traditional pattern of life, and got myself a job out of high school, since my seven year old entrepreneurial spirit wasn’t quite burgeoning anymore.

Before too long, a loss became a life-changing opportunity. I was laid off from my job and, rather than jump back into the rat race, I jumped headfirst into my first business. Would you believe a wedding stationery business? What’s more, it was an outstanding success. We received write-ups in magazines such as “Black Bride Magazine,” accolades over social media, and built a solid clientele. I was blown away. But my itchy feet and inner nerd called on me to move on to something new. That is when I started my first business.

Today, I am the proud owner of another successful and rapidly growing enterprise dedicated to teaching women in business how to start and grow their businesses.

Buzz Interviews Michelle Robinson of DEMIblue Natural Nails

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After my mom’s experience with cancer and radiation, we learned about Cancer fueling toxins found in a product we use weekly-NAIL POLISH. I became inspired to incorporate my love for research, my healthcare and education experience, and my love for serving others into providing healthy manicures through the creation of my personal nail polish brand. Coupled with a desire to create a successful business and a legacy for my family; “DEMIblue” was born.
It has become my mission to provide education through the offering of my nail polish products and healthy manicures. I aspire to contribute to my community in a way that empowers healthy lifestyle practices and saw a significant need in the nail care industry.
In recent years, we have been warned to avoid the “Toxic Trio” when using cosmetic products. These ingredients include Formaldehyde, Toluene, and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP).
Formaldehyde, used as a hardening agent in nail polish, is a well-known carcinogen, while toluene is used to create a smooth finish and DBP is used to create a chip-free coat, have both been linked to developmental defects.
DEMIblue is a 7-Free product that has eliminated the “Toxic Trio” along with formaldehyde resin, camphor, xylene, and parabens. Our products are a vegan-friendly formulation.
DEMIblue is a call-to-action, catering to health-conscious customers seeking a healthier alternative to conventional nail polish products. Our collection includes 22 alluring nail polish colors and a complete line of nail treatments that range from nail strengtheners, tops coats, base coats, deep nutrition products, cuticle and nail oil pens and a Soy-based non-acetone nail polish remover. Each enriched with vitamins and nutrients that promote natural nail health and growth.

Buzz Interviews Jen Cox of Nowhere I Would Rather Be

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I recently quit my job in Minneapolis and moved to Dallas. I started my new Instagram page and Pinterest to collect content from my adventures in order to build captions, ideas, and content into a blog. My first goal was to go everywhere, be everywhere. Networking in a new city was my first challenge! I’m a pretty outgoing person and have always been successful making friends in new cities. I studied abroad three times (twice in undergrad, once in grad school) and worked in London as a Program Director for a study abroad program. I’ve always been excited by looking up events, things to do, places to eat, or anything that I needed in life, in different places I’ve lived. My background is in liberal arts, and I have my Bachelor’s Degree in Government and my Master’s Certificate in Organizational Leadership . No one could really understand why I would leave my successful analyst job at a big bank to follow things that excited me.

My idea for my brand came from my recent move to Dallas. The move came at a time in my life where I had to make very relatable decisions about breaking off relationships, quitting my job in finance, moving across the country from Minneapolis. Every has been faced with big choices like this, but maybe not all at once! Between comments from friends/amazement from coworkers and seeing articles all over the internet/book topics about stuff like “How I changed careers in my 30’s” to “How I quit my job to travel” etc, I realized there was genuine interest in my story. My boyfriend had to move to Dallas several months before I could, and a song we loved had the phrase “nowhere I would rather be” in it.

It is a phrase that resonates with me because that is literally how I feel any time I’m doing something I love and living in the moment. Also, everywhere I travel feels like home pretty fast and I never want to leave. The phrase kind of took on a dual meaning as a reminder to put myself first and choose to be happy in a way that I appreciate everything and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, and as a promise to my boyfriend that I would genuinely give Texas a chance. More than anything, I needed a change of perspective and to give myself a chance.