Kelly Alexander

I attribute my success to resilience, vision, and consistency in execution. I am especially proud that I independently carried KA Fashion TV on Roku without financial backing, remaining committed to its value even when there was no income, because my goal was to keep the fashion community visible and relevant during a challenging time. Receiving validation through the HAPA Awards further affirmed that my dedication and persistence were meaningful and impactful. A major driver of my success is my practice of visualization intentionally seeing myself where I want to be and embodying the emotions of that success daily, which helps me stay aligned and motivated. I also rely on laughter and perspective as essential tools for balance, using humor to stay grounded, shift my mindset, and keep moving forward even through difficult circumstances.

The two people who have inspired me most are Dolly Parton, who I've never met, and my aunt Beverly. Dolly Parton has this incredible gift of allowing people to interview her, and when they ask her very harsh questions that would cause her to pick a side, she makes light of it and says she's here to entertain. She doesn't allow anyone to push her into a corner. She comes out smelling like roses, smiling and happy, and she never wavers. She's the beacon of how a woman should answer questions in interviews - be silly about it, come out smiling, and flip it on them. She does it with such grace. She also gives back so much to her community in ways that brighten the lives of people she's never met, like with her book club sending books out to help people learn to read. She's just a giver, and I want to be remembered like that. My aunt Beverly was a gift to me growing up, and she's still here, though now I'm the gift to her. She was old school and would tell me the funniest things like 'God don't like ugly, and he could care less about the pretty, so you better get it together.' She would always say 'Baby, education is everything. You need that.' She showed me her different accolades that she had received. Later she ended up with mental illness, but during that time she was still well enough to have long, loving conversations with me about what I could do. She took care of me growing up as my aunt and mentor, and as I became older and saw that she had issues, I flipped it and began to be to her what she was to me, to help her. She represents the type of nurturing, love, inspiration and influence that I want to be for other young women.

I would say pretend like you've already entered into where you want to be, like you already have everything you dream of. Take a moment every morning, every afternoon, and every evening and envision yourself where you really want to be and in the group of people you want to be around. As you do that, you're going to start manifesting where you desire to be, and it's going to come in a way that maybe you didn't see it happening. Visualization, to me, is one of our biggest gifts. It's the same as dreaming, just different - visualizing and dreaming are the same thing, one you're awake and one you are not, so I need you to be awake. When you focus on things that are not so positive and not so kind and not so nice, you're gonna get more of it because that's where your vision is. But if you visualize what you want and emote the joy of that thing when you go to bed, because you're visualizing before you go to bed, you may end up in a dream that wakes you up and says you've got this. I'm big on that.

One of the biggest opportunities I see right now is getting young girls back on track and helping them be more ladylike and elegant. I recently watched the WNBA draft for the first time, and I cried watching those girls. On the basketball court, they're sweating and roughing it out because that's their sport and their dream, but when they showed up to the draft, they came with full makeup and beautiful dresses. To me, it was like a Met Gala. They were gracious, their speeches were wonderful, and they showed up like beautiful women who had earned and worked hard, and they still were ladylike. I don't know what their personal lives are and I don't care because that's not my business, but to go on camera and show the elegance that you are - it made me cry. I told my husband I wasn't into basketball before, but now I want to get tickets to support these girls because they showed up like that. They showed up like beautiful women, and they still were ladylike. We've got to turn our young girls around and get them back to being more elegant, and I don't care what you do in your life because it's your choice, but you've got to be more gracious in how you present yourself.

In my downtime, I come from a family where we're runners and walkers. I ran track as a child, and now I like to do a lot of walking. The water and the mountains are my happy place - walking near the water or in the mountains really grounds me. I'm grateful I'm in California where I can see both in one day if I needed to, but one will do the trick. I'm a tree hugger, so I like looking at all the trees and the earth. I appreciate the land we're on, and I don't care what part of the earth you're in or where you live, wherever it is, you're there because that's where you're supposed to be in that moment. Find something beautiful there and appreciate it, because I need that often. I actually have three children that I've raised - two boys and a girl. I made everybody run when they were young because they were hyper and wouldn't sleep, so I ended up making them run just to give them something to do. With me doing that to them, I ended up with one that became an Olympian. Part of my balance in life is also laughter. I laugh at everything, at myself, at others, because sometimes things are so serious and you can't change the direction some things are going. I choose to put on things like I Love Lucy because I'm gonna laugh, and I can jump out of what I'm in and take a moment to watch something really funny. I realize it doesn't have to be that serious right now - just laugh and enjoy this moment, and then go on to the next thing.