This Hip-Hop Medium Became A Self-Made Millionaire By Walking In Her Purpose
When first introduced to Aries Eye, I was not sure what to expect. Did she know what I was thinking? Would she be open to having a genuine conversation? And does this go against my religion ('cause all I know is I'm down with Jesus)? All these thoughts ran through my mind before our conversation began. But after a few minutes of chatting, I felt like I was simply talking with a friend, except this one could speak to the dead.
Aries Eye is a medium (a person who communicates with spirits) most known for her work in the hip hop community. She's been a guest on The Breakfast Club and channeled for guests like Faith Evans' daughter Chyna and many more. While I can only imagine what it's like to share such intimate moments with people about their loved ones who are no longer with us, I was most curious to know what her every day life is like. I can barely balance my normal day to day tasks, how does she do it while connecting with two worlds? Through our transparent conversation, I learned it wasn't at all easy.
Tell me about your first experience as a medium. When did you realize you had a gift?
The first experience was when my great grandmother transitioned. I was about twelve years old, and it felt like I was dreaming. As kids we don't understand we're seeing spirits. I just remember feeling like I had just woken up, and I saw her sitting across from me in a rocking chair, shaking her head. I went to tell mom, but she told me my grandmother was in Chicago. A few days later, my dad called and said she had passed. After that, I suppressed it for years like most kids do. But I joined the marine corps at 17 and the experiences started to come back in the form of anxiety. It wasn't until last year that I actually owned it.
Courtesy of Aries Eye
"I joined the marine corps at 17 and the experiences started to come back in the form of anxiety. It wasn't until last year that I actually owned it."
That seems like a lot to handle. Did you share these experiences with other people? How did they take it?
I didn't tell anybody, because how do you? Even the criticism I take now is amiss. What happens a lot of times when people are suppressing their truth and gifts, it's like a balloon. Eventually it can only take so much before it pops. They begin to swell and become chaotic. You're power-battling yourself so you start battling others too, and that's what happened to me, I became very angry.
When did you decide you wanted to shift your secret and change it to you purpose?
Last year, the craziest thing happened. I was fussing at my daughter Ayri and she says, "Don't call me Ayri, my name is Granny Watkins." She's never met my great grandmother, and I didn't even call her that. So for a two-year-old to say that, it was an awakening moment. I was looking at the purest version of myself, so I was like, "I get it Grandma. I'm gonna walk in my truth."
Did you have any experience with this kind of work? Walk me through your career journey.
I did hair for nine years and was a district manager making good money. But, I was always on the road as a single mom. When I decided to relocate to NC, I didn't have a plan. The first job I got didn't work out, and I walked away from the second. Times were hard, and I was homeless with my daughter. Last year is when I fully walked in my gift and trusted my ancestors, and last May, I became a self-made millionaire.
Courtesy of Aries Eye
"Last year is when I fully walked in my gift and trusted my ancestors, and last May, I became a self-made millionaire."
What’s a typical day like for you?
I travel to help patients who are comatose or in hospice. People pay me to transition them out, which means I call forth their ancestors that have died and help give the family closure. I also have a website that schedules people for readings, and I teach a lot of classes. There are 42 apprentices underneath my leadership. On any given day, I am teaching them how to walk in their gift (mediums, clairvoyants, healers). I teach them how to be themselves, to walk in the spiritual realm.
How did the hip-hop brand happen, and why?
It was a cool name for an African-American trying to lead her people. People see me and think I can't be a spiritualist. I am very much into the millennial culture and immersed into hip-hop. But I do also just get a lot of hip-hop spirits that come to me. I think it's because of relatability. When you walk with the dead, you began to develop a rapport with them the same way you do with humans and the living. I can't explain the power of having an army behind you that no one else can see but you can feel them going to war for you. I spoke about that time when I was angry. I got out of the marine corps, and was in prison for two years. I don't think I should have been in that long, but life takes you through experiences. The Long Island Medium can't talk to a black man who just came out of prison, I can. I think a lot of them come to me because I'm authentic.
"When you walk with the dead, you began to develop a rapport with them the same way you do with humans and the living. I can't explain the power of having an army behind you that no one else can see but you can feel them going to war for you."
What has been your most memorable experience in this career?
Last month, I transitioned an 18-year-old who was shot in the head. The hardest thing for me was knowing that he was gone. I knew his soul was wondering. I had to watch a black mother who worked so hard, pull her child off life support. It was very hard to see that. To me, that was the most standout moment because I knew I wanted to help black mothers heal. We have too many of them who have lost their children to gun violence. The hip-hop aspect is fine and dandy, but the real work comes when you can touch the community.
For more on Aries Eye, visit her website at readingswitharieseye.com or follow her on social media @iamarieseye.
Featured image courtesy of Aries Eye
Kirby Carroll grew up in VA but now calls Atlanta, GA home. She has a passion for creating content and helping brands grow through storytelling and public relations. When not immersed in work, you can find her sipping a mimosa at brunch or bingeing a new TV drama on Netflix. Keep up with her on social media at @askKirbyCarroll.
This Black Woman-Owned Creative Agency Shows Us The Art Of Rebranding
Rebranding is an intricate process and very important to the success of businesses that want to change. However, before a business owner makes this decision, they should determine whether it's a rebrand or an evolution.
That's where people like Lola Adewuya come in. Lola is the founder and CEO of The Brand Doula, a brand development studio with a multidisciplinary approach to branding, social media, marketing, and design.
While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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Kelly Rowland Reveals Her Recipe For A Good Time Through Food, Family, And Giving Back
Kelly Rowland has been a beacon of light for little Black and brown girls since she first arrived on the scene through Destiny’s Child in the 1990s, yet, despite her success and accolades, her road to self-discovery is still underway.
The Fantasy Football actress says this era of her life is rooted in constant discovery and the realization that the possibilities in life are endless.
“I’m in constant discovery and learning about myself, about life, about love, about communicating, and I just say discovery is my current era, and to me, the possibilities are endless of what my capacities are,” the “Motivation” singer told xoNecole during an exclusive interview.
A part of that discovery is acknowledging all of the different looks she’s trademarked over the years, whether it’s her classic short red cut or the blonde she’s been known to lean toward recently. She attests a lot of her iconic looks to her bonus mother, Tina Knowles.
“I’m really grateful to Mama T for that because since she owned and worked in a hair salon, she would say, ‘Well, let’s try this. Let’s cut it off. Let’s grow it back. Oh, it’s just hair,’ you know what I mean?” the 43-year-old recalled.
“I’m definitely in that spirit when it comes to hair and glam and just seeing what pops and what doesn’t. I think that there are no rules.”
“For a long time, brown girls were told you can’t do this, you can’t do this, and you shouldn’t do this. It won’t look good on your complexion. That’s not our story. That does not belong to us at all.
"Our possibilities are endless. If anything, we make the trends and we make it look good. We make gem tones look wonderful because of the brown skin that pops off of the gem tone. We make it look wonderful.”
As the mother of two boys, Noah and Titan, Rowland still aims to create tradition through a good meal. She notes how she manages to balance maintaining quality time with her family as a woman who wears many hats.
“One thing that we’re trying to stay on top of right now is one-on-one quality time,” she shared. “I like to do that with my boys. They both get their own afternoon or day with me, so we have these little dates. Noah and I were sitting at this ice cream spot in LA the last time, and we just sat there and talked. It also made me sad because I was like Oh my God, this three-year-old is growing up so fast. I can’t believe he’s even three, and we’re sitting up here and having this whole conversation.”
“One thing that we’re trying to stay on top of right now is one-on-one quality time. I like to do that with my boys. They both get their own afternoon or day with me, so we have these little dates.”
Rowland added, “Then, with Titan, he likes a sushi spot that we go to for hand rolls, and so, we definitely bond over food and over certain outings that we might have. I just like for them to be one-on-one so that we can create our memories together, and they feel seen by me, their mother, and we just enjoy each other’s time. We laugh, and that means a lot to me.”
She is also very intentional in stressing the importance of giving back, something that was instilled in her at a young age by her mother that Rowland is ensuring her sons get a taste of.
“For Christmas, we like to be home, but we also like to give back,” said Rowland.
“Around Christmastime, I want my kids to understand how important it is to give back. So this year, I think we will pile it on because both of them will understand now even more.
"The three-year-old might miss it, but the nine-year-old is definitely starting to catch on. My mom poured that into me about the spirit of giving, and I want my kids to have that same tradition that my mom gave me.”
Today, she continues to give back by pouring into a locally owned eatery that made her, even having a meal named in her honor in a new partnership centered around spreading the love when it comes to patronizing local restaurants nationwide.
This Is It! is one of her childhood favorite Black-owned restaurants in her home city of Houston. During the earlier DC days, she recalled bonding with her bandmates-turned-family members over a delicious plate of soul food at This Is It!, a fourth-generation, family-owned establishment known for its comfort dishes.
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“I love the idea that a huge corporation like Pepsi wants to make sure that in their budget, they’re giving back to communities that have supported them for many years,” she said.
Rowland added, "This Is It! is a place that grew me up and helped me to keep my feet on the ground. This always brings back such fond memories for me.”
In honor of Rowland’s favorite This Is It! meal being named after her, which includes pepper steak with rice and gravy, green beans, peach cobbler, and an ice-cold Pepsi, the “Like This” crooner discussed her recipe for a good time.
“I would say good food,” she laughed. “Not that I need it, but a good Espresso Martini or a French white wine. Sometimes, I might lack energy, so I need a Pepsi to pick me right back up.”
“What else? Good energy. You need good energy. Like, good people with good energy who know how to have a good time. Who aren’t going to look around and see what the other person is doing," Rowland added.
"Because just when people are so good in their body and self-aware and self-assured, they are the funnest people to hang out with because they don’t give a crap about what’s happening around them. They just want to have a good time. I like those people.”
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