Mia Ray is a Detroit-born and raised mom, retired blogger, and entrepreneur. She’s spent the last decade building up her brand. When Mia was 26 years old, she worked at a fashion boutique, inspiring her to launch her fashion and lifestyle blog, Confessions of a Glam-Aholic. A year after launching the blog, Mia started Glam-Aholic Lifestyle, a luxury and affordable accessories brand, as an extension of her blog content. The luxury line consists of monogrammed metallic tote bags, super cute toiletry bags, passport covers, and spacious travel sets for any girl on the move. Mia can’t keep her bags and other accessories stocked for long, as she consistently sells out in minutes.
“Overnight success”
In 2019, Glam-Aholic Lifestyle had what Mia likes to call its “overnight success moment,” though it took 13 long years to get there. Suddenly, the brand’s metallic duffel bags were seen everywhere, throughout airports across the country, and eager customers were setting alarms to get their hands on bags before they sold out. Mia did this without paid ads, press, or celebrities. She credits the success to all the years of hard work she put in, along with the love and support from her loyal community.
Collaboration
Mia feels it’s super important to partner with other driven women, especially women from Detroit. She believes there’s power in partnership and aims to show love by putting others on.
In March 2020, Mia partnered with fellow Detroit-native Melissa Butler of The Lip Bar, which appeared on Shark Tank, to launch The D Girl Collection, marked by a series of events that took place there. The duo launched the collection on 3/13, which paid homage to the city’s area code. The D-Girl Collection featured three lip glosses by The Lip Bar and a cosmetic case by Glam-Aholic Lifestyle.
Secret to her success
The secret to Mia’s success with Glam-Aholic Lifestyle has been her highly anticipated product drops. Mia has a fantastic relationship with her 197,000 Instagram followers. She’s mastered the art of storytelling and taking her followers along for the journey. Because of this, her community is always ready and waiting to purchase her goodies.
Although you can shop Glam-Aholic Lifestyle via the website anytime and find many products available, Mia constantly drops hot, new items and builds up anticipation for these products by doing professional video shoots. In May 2022, Mia launched her luggage line, which she says was always her dream. When the collection dropped, the affordable luxury items sold out in under 10 minutes, bringing in $700,000 in sales for the former lifestyle blogger.
Mia is proof that it doesn’t matter how you start, but the work you put in determines how you finish. She started out as a teen mom and college dropout, becoming a multi-millionaire with several brands, multiple investment properties, and an amazing community of loyal supporters.
