Cher Smoot Johnson

I've been the owner and operator of The Walk-In Closet boutique for 11 years as of May 8th. I tell people all the time, anybody can put on some clothes and walk, but only your walk with Christ is gonna last. I'm not just a typical local boutique owner - I consider myself more of a ministry. Women come in, strangers even, and start sharing bits and pieces of their story. You see women looking beautiful, you see their glory, but you don't know their story. You don't know what it took for them to get up, to wake up, to make up, and just start their day. I have a group of ladies that I call Cher's Angels, and they're my models who represent my business. They all have a story - one was delivered from drugs, another was being abused by a preacher husband and suffering in silence, another lost her daughter in a car accident the day before graduation. People need to hear these stories because everybody has a story, but you're looking at people and you don't know their journey. Before opening my boutique, I was secretary for the Bessemer Board of Education for 18 years and worked at the post office for 5 years. I have birth children and adopted 5 more children for a total of 9. God led me to this business when I was struggling with one of my adopted daughters who was having challenges at school. I saw a lease sign, called the owner, signed the lease without telling my husband, and God has been working it out ever since. Some days I don't know where my rent will come from, but He sends people in who meet me at the rent exactly. I've also founded Real Men Wear Pink, an annual event honoring breast cancer survivors with an all-male fashion show, and I've hosted at least 300 fashion shows throughout Alabama.