We had the good fortune of connecting with Adriene Michelle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adriene, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
“He who is not corageous enough to take risk will accomplish nothing in life” – Muhammad Ali. Risk opens the door for success. Since a child I have always been the black sheep in my family. Reason being I was the daredevil, the rule breaker, the one who thought outside of the box. I never feared or honestly even calculated the risk if I knew what I wanted was on the other side of it. I have always been the one to run before I crawled or jump before I knew how far the fall was. Taking risk is how I became fearless. If I didn’t take risk I would have never started my businesses.

When I was in college, I always felt a higher calling or that I was out of place studying pre-law. I felt as if I was living someone else’s dream. Which in fact I was, I was living my mothers dream for me instead of my own. I always had a passion for fashion and events and instead of going after my own desires I attempted to go the safe route. Due to many roadblocks, I finally was forced to come up with a plan to pursue my own dreams. That is when Bordeaux our modeling agency was created. After the first few months of developing Bordeaux, I attempted to finish school but my heart was elsewhere so instead of wasting money and time I decided to withdraw from school and focus on creating my business. In the beginning many couldn’t see the vision or understand the risk but 6 years later we are still killing it and growing bigger and better! Even when no one believes you have to see the reward within the risk and go after it no matter what gets in your way.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am the CEO of two businesses Bordeaux Model and Talent Agency as well as Lianna Michelle Luxury. Bordeaux is my first business. This agency is so dear to my heart because it stemmed from my personal aspirations to be a model. I grew up watching Americas Next Top Model almost daily. Learning and admiring all the things it took to become a model. I then would tell my family that my desire was to be a model and people would quickly shut it down due to my height and weight. Once I went to college and did runway for a few years and gained my confidence I knew anyone could be a model you just have to find your lane or be willing to go against the grain to get the opportunities you wanted. So I created Bordeaux an agency that goes hard for models like me who has everything they need to succeed but just needed that a team to believe and assist them. Our agencies agenda is to help create a non-discriminitory industry for all models. We have seen so many changes since the beginning of this fashion world and we know petite and minority models deserve more and we are here to help them get it!

As for Lianna Michelle Luxury we are a company that helps create a world of Luxury for our clients. We focus on event planning, luxury travel, event and editorial styling and interior styling. I always have had a deep passion for all of these career paths so I created a company that allowed me to do them all under one umbrella!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best-friend would FINALLY visit me in Atlanta our weekend would go a little like this…

Friday night we would get dressed up and go for dinner at the steak market, after we would probably stop at the Skylounge for drinks. Saturday we would get up do a cute Bruch at Breakfast at Barneys. Afterwards we would go try the spin art for something fun and maybe the Gurl Mobb Museum for some cute pics. Sunday we would definitely stop by Suite lounge for some good eats and vibes and maybe after go to iFly Atlanta to try indoor skydiving because we both have talked about how much we want to try it!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My greatest inspirations have been my little sisters. Knowing that they needed someone like me to live my life so abundantly to give them the permission to do the same. When times get hard or I feel like giving up I always remember that they need me to do this not only for myself but for them. Growing up we always had us so when it was time to move out and go to college it was a weird adjustment to not have them there but I always kept them in the back of my mind with every decision. Which made a lot of my risky decisions hard because I would always think to myself is this the best thing for them to see or copy. Sometimes it wasn’t easy but I had to know it was for a greater reward and if they did it too I would hope they would see that part of the decision too.

The person I most looked up to was Oprah. Though many have opinions of her I always respected the fact that she was a woman who did things HER way! She created her own lane for herself in a time where that was totally going against the grain. She did the impossible and broke barriers forever changing the world for black women and I too wanted to change the world in such ways.

Website: LiannaMichelleLuxury.com

Instagram: @_kissmybeauty_

Linkedin: Adriene Michelle

Facebook: Adriene Michelle

Youtube: Adriene Michelle

Image Credits
Idris @gidifilm

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