Seriously, dreams do come true and I experienced this first hand this past weekend at The World Natural Hair Show in Atlanta!! Ok so let’s rewind to two months ago.

In March, I received an email from a PR agency stating that Creme Of Nature wanted to work with me for a campaign. I was definitely excited. I initially thought it was for a “normal” campaign. Little did I know, this campaign was their 2017 NATIONAL I Am Super Natural campaign!! Of course, I jumped on the opportunity and literally two weeks later, I was flown out to Atlanta for a 2-day shoot with celebrity photographer Keith Major, celebrity hair stylist Pekela Riley and celebrity makeup artist, Melissa Hibbert.

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Side note: Let me share a quick story about Melissa to show you how my God works. Literally a week before the photoshoot, I was scrolling through Facebook and came across an interview on Essence featuring celebrity makeup artist, Melissa Hibbert. I watched the video and was immediately inspired by Melissa’s message on how she followed her passion and decided to take on make-up artistry full time. She quit her corporate America job and went for it. I shared that video on my facebook wall, captioning it with “GOALS”. Fast forward to a week later, I was sitting in her makeup chair and she was doing MY makeup for a major campaign. I literally wanted to cry in that moment, because it was nothing but God that made this situation come to fruition. I had no idea the woman I admired the week before would be someone I would be working with!! AMAZING.

This past weekend, the I Am Super Natural Creme of Nature campaign debuted for the first time at the World Natural Hair show, and I must say it was EVERYTHING. Not only am I in the campaign, but I am featured in it heavily. I was asked by Creme of Nature to be one of the influencer/blogger/models at the World Natural Hair show and it was definitely the best experience ever! My mother and Aunt came along with me, and I am sooo glad that they did. It was seriously a surreal experience to view the campaign in person and to see the HUGE images of me all over the booth!! It was an emotional experience for 2 reasons:

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HARD WORK PAYS OFF
I saw my hard work unfold and my dreams come true. Over the past two years I worked my ASS off. Period. I didn’t take any short cuts, or expect anyone to give me anything. I was a small fish in a BIG sea! But none of that mattered to me. I didn’t focus on what anyone else was doing, I just put in work and I grew exponentially and organically. When I started this venture, my goal was to inspire other women to embrace their hair in style. I never EVER thought I would be on a national campaign with one of the leading hair brands. But it is so funny how God works and how he will lead you. I get a number of messages from women on “how to grow” and the main answer that will always come out of my mouth is: EFFORT, HARD WORK, and CONSISTENCY. This is exactly what I put in over the past few years to get the recognition that I am receiving now.

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YEAR OF GROWTH
The second reason I got emotional is to witness my growth in just a year. I am not speaking of my growth in social media numbers, but just my personal and business growth. I remember when people didn’t even know my name when I entered a room. Now in most instances, I don’t have to introduce myself. I don’t say this in a cocky way, but in a way that means hard work pays off. You know that quote “work so hard that you no longer have to introduce yourself”. I for one, will always introduce myself- but the principal is people will know you once you start to put in the work that will put yourself out there to be known.

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I am so very blessed for this opportunity. Dreams do come true. The amount of love and support I received this weekend was surreal. I had supporters and followers of my Instagram come up to me and tell me how much I inspire them, or how proud they are of me and I was in awe of all of this recognition. Honestly guys, you never know who is watching you, who is inspired by you or your journey. I am so humbled by it all. I honestly want to cry again (actually I am tearing up now-ahhh). I am an emotional person, and it’s really because I am genuine about this all, so humbled that I am at this point of my career, but so excited to see where God leads me next.

Thank you to everyone that came out, that shared images, video, love and support- thank you. And to anyone that reads my blog- thank you. I pray that you are inspired, that hard work will pay off, and know that God will bless you when he feels your time has come. So continue to put in the work, it won’t come overnight, but trust the journey!