Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Y. Williams.
Hi Natasha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Houston, TX, in the center of it all – 3rd Ward! I am a proud alumnus of the historically rich James D. Ryan Middle School and Jack Yates High School. I grew up attending summer programs at Texas Southern University and could go on and on about my love for my community and the pride I have of being a Houstonian through and through!
I met my husband of 18 years at Stephen F. Austin State University, where I obtained my graduate degree in Public Administration, and later attended the University of North Texas for an additional graduate degree in Library & Information Science. From my mother’s example, I followed the route to be expected and stayed on the straight and narrow, safe careers that offered long-term professional advancement and retirement.
With the onset of the pandemic in the Spring of 2020 and having ushered in my 40th year of living, it was an opportune time for me to explore my more creative side in addition to my exit from the oil & gas industry; after 12 years! With the support of my family, I began designing the ReignSolo brand of aprons to shake up this market to design aprons that could appeal more to the next generation of cooks, bakers, artists, and so many in the food industry and other creatives that use aprons in their everyday work and home!
My earliest memories I have are of my petite great grandmother, whom we affectionately called Gran Gran, making her biscuits from scratch, rolling out the dough and shaking flour on the counter in her peanut butter brown apron. She was a fashionable woman, always in her pearls and an early entrepreneur herself, having moved from Gadsen, FL. to Bryn Mawr, PA. during the Great Migration where she later established a staffing agency. Her table settings were immaculate, as was her dress on so many occasions when she hosted dinners, brunches and lunches in the Haverford township of Pennsylvania.
The ability to combine my love of food, my children and a nod to my great grandmother is a win-win for me! A line of aprons that are modern and chic where you can forget you are even wearing an apron is the style goal that I have in mind! A new take on an old classic… your Granny will want to upgrade too!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
What is life without bumps along the way!? I am by no means at the pinnacle of the apron industry so there is still so much more to accomplish. Each day I am carving out a niche for the ReignSolo brand of aprons to be seen and recognized by the masses. I have been in touch and recently collaborated with a food network champion in NYC and a Cupcake Wars champion in California! Being an entrepreneur is about give and take; I am constantly learning from those experienced and others still new to marketing themselves, their brand and their products. The only struggle in my eyes is if you decide to stop! I am excited to see what the next few years will look like for ReignSolo LLC!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I appreciate that you want to learn more about ReignSolo and its origin story. Let’s start with the fact that I am no chef/cook/baker, but I can admire and respect these professions and enthusiasts from afar. I love to eat food, taste it, relish it and enjoy seeing my family show their “love” by sharing their own food from the heart! I truly believe when you serve others, you REIGN! In fact, this is how my husband continues to show his love for me and our children on a daily… he has given me the opportunity to drag him from city to city, hot spot restaurant to the next, with the desire to explore and expand our palate! I even have a whole speaking presentation for Toastmasters on the topic of “broccoli,” yes broccoli, all due to my husband’s love of this vegetable.
I am a collector of recipes from the everyday meals to the holiday spreads, to specialty pastries to the tastiest gumbos and reaux. I save links to cookbooks, print out PDFs and display the many cookbooks that I have ordered in my kitchen… so, to say I love food is an understatement! With the ReignSolo brand of kitchen wares, you may start in the kitchen, but believe me you can easily wear the apron designs at your leisure in other settings… this is how we are set apart. I encourage our customers to break those style taboos and myths of what you can’t do and how it should be done, breaking away from the classic, old guard of kitchen wares and styles of decades past. As I have said, even granny will want her own modern and chic apron set… I promise!
I consider myself a foodie, but no one’s expert on food, just a southern girl who knows flavor when she tastes it! Thinking of the men in my life like my husband, father and brother who can throw down with the best of them (when it comes to cooking) I want to give people style options when doing so with a little sass.
The company name, ReignSolo, is a combination of my children’s names with the concept originating back in 2008, after my second child was born. REINA means “Queen” in Spanish, and SOLOMON is royal in the biblical sense and finally, KINGSTON is my youngest and we have nicknamed him KING, which is where all the royal and kingdom related references converge (overkill?).
Beyonce said it best, “You can’t wear a crown with your head down”! I encourage us all to do the same through the ReignSolo brand.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
A determined spirit will certainly open up doors for you! You just have to keep at it. As an entrepreneur, you can find yourself networking in circles you otherwise wouldn’t be in if not for having a determined state of mind. One other note, I recently purchased the book titled, No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can by Robert Reffkin, the CEO of Compass, the largest independent real estate brokerage in the U.S. I repeat this mantra in all that I do! Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can!
Pricing:
- Signature Collection Apron $38
- Say It Collection Apron $48
Contact Info:
- Email: info@reignsolo.com
- Website: www.reignsolo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopreignsolo/
- Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/shopreignsolo/
Image Credits
Rashid Tillis with Right Time Solutions https://www.instagram.com/righttimesolutions
Mekennah Ward https://www.instagram.com/m.wardphotography
