Meet Carla Gibson

We were lucky to catch up with Carla Gibson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Carla , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I get my resilience from my mom — and from life itself, along with the support systems I’ve been blessed with through family, friends, and the connections I’ve made over my 29 years of living.
Take last October for example — I found out that my LLC had been administratively dissolved. I had just joined a business and grant community led by Coach K, and that moment was a wake-up call. I discovered I owed five years of business taxes and about $1,600 in back annual fees. On top of that, I realized I hadn’t been properly structured, and fixing it all took time, energy, and money.
But instead of giving up, I pushed through. I got my business reinstated, corrected my filings, and worked toward converting my domestic Arizona LLC into a foreign LLC — so I could operate in two states under one unified structure.
At the same time, I was still running my TikTok Shop, selling through on-hand inventory, preparing for my 2026 relaunch, and continuing to grow my email list and website traffic. Some days were heavy, but I reminded myself how far I’ve come — and that even small steps forward still count as progress.
I even organized an end-of-year outreach drive — creating backpacks with sack lunches, snacks, socks, and undergarments for 110 men and 110 women in partnership with the Turtle Island Women Warriors nonprofit. It’s not the full Project Restore event I’m planning yet, but it’s a start — and it’s a way of honoring the Project Healthy Living legacy I grew up around in Detroit.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Professionally, I’m the founder of Unique Monique’s Boutique LLC, a beauty and lifestyle brand I started in June 2020. My brand focuses on affordable luxury — helping people look good, feel good, and do good through quality beauty, self-care, and confidence-based products.
Since my last interview, I’ve been focused on growing my TikTok Shop, which now features over 40 of my signature products. My current goal is to sell out my shop before the end of the year so I can restock new inventory for 2026 and use that income as business revenue for a fresh relaunch.
This holiday season, I’m releasing two limited-edition bundles:
🎁 The Holiday Confidence Pack, which includes Monique’s Magic Mirror Book 1, the Parent’s Guide, Educator’s Guide, Mirror Messages Crossword Vol. 1, and the Monique’s Magic Mirror Candle — only 15 available.
🎁 The Men’s Holiday Bundle, featuring my top-selling Satin Durags, Beard Oil, a surprise men’s jewelry piece, and the Phantom Crown Candle — only 20 available.
These bundles help introduce more people to the Monique’s Magic Mirror Universe, while I continue working on Book 2, which is currently in editing and illustration. The second book will be a chapter book that expands the story and lessons behind Monique’s journey of confidence and self-discovery.
I’ve also been helping organize the Shush Diné Pop-Up Market since August 2025. Shush Diné Native Shop is a local Native-owned business here in Arizona, and as an Afro-Native woman, supporting and giving back through this partnership helps me connect with roots I’m still learning about. The shop owner, Reva Stewart, also founded Turtle Island Women Warriors in 2021 — a nonprofit that supports the unhoused and works to locate missing Native people and relatives affected by ongoing sober-living scams in Arizona, helping reconnect them with family and essential resources.
The Pop-Up Markets provide a space for small businesses with physical products to showcase and sell their work in a safe, supportive environment. The $20 vendor fee from each event directly supports Turtle Island Women Warriors’ outreach — allowing me, through this collaboration, to bring Project Restore to life in a tangible way and give it even deeper purpose within the community.
Looking ahead to 2026, I’ll be launching 201 new name-brand fragrances across 19 designer brands, priced at $75 (50 ml), $95 (100 ml), and $165 (200 ml), with a goal of 205 pre-orders before the official launch. I’ll also be doing a full restock of wigs, bundles, frontals, closures, body and skin-care essentials, and name-brand fragrances in both full-size and roll-on oils.
All of my literary projects — including the Monique’s Magic Mirror series — will transition under Unique Monique’s Publishing LLC for better structure and organization. I also have long-term goals for physical location growth and am actively working on the funding to make that a reality.
At Unique Monique’s Boutique LLC, our mission is simple — we solve the problem of overpriced beauty by providing affordable wigs, bundles, closures, frontals, hair, body and skin-care essentials, and name-brand fragrances in both full-size and roll-on oils, plus the Monique’s Magic Mirror children’s book series and more — all designed to help you look good, smell good, and feel good so you can unlock your beauty potential without breaking the bank.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, the three qualities that have had the biggest impact on my journey are resilience, resourcefulness, and community-minded leadership.
Resilience has carried me through every setback — from learning the hard way about business filings and taxes to rebuilding my structure and brand from the ground up. My advice to anyone starting out is: don’t let mistakes make you quit. Let them make you curious. Every problem teaches you something about how to run your business better.
Resourcefulness taught me that success doesn’t always come from having everything — it comes from making the most of what you have. I turned a storage unit into a working salon powered by a generator, sold inventory through TikTok organically, and used free and low-cost tools to keep growing. Start where you are, with what you have, and build as you go.
Finally, community-minded leadership reminds me that business isn’t just about profit; it’s about purpose. By organizing the Shush Diné Pop-Up Markets and partnering with Turtle Island Women Warriors, I’ve learned that helping others grow creates a ripple effect that always comes back around. My advice is to build with people, not just for them.
No matter what stage you’re in, stay humble, stay learning, and remember — progress doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

My biggest area of growth in the past 12 months has been learning how to balance structure with grace. I’ve grown both personally and professionally by rebuilding my foundation — not to start over, but to bring more clarity and organization to what I’ve already built.
This year, I successfully reinstated and restructured Unique Monique’s Boutique LLC and began transitioning my literary and publishing work under Unique Monique’s Publishing LLC. That shift allows me to keep my beauty boutique focused on products and services while giving my books and creative works their own structured space to grow.
I’ve also made major progress financially — reducing my credit usage from nearly $5,000 to under $1,000. That has allowed me to keep more money in my pocket for bills, savings, and life experiences while improving my credit health. It’s also positioning me to become a personal guarantor for my businesses, giving me the flexibility to access funding and truly expand when the time is right.
Another big area of growth has been my mindset around business value. I’ve become comfortable with being both affordable and profitable — understanding that raising my prices and building a stronger revenue foundation is what will allow me to pay myself a salary and begin hiring a team. Delegating more will let me focus on scaling sustainably while still serving my customers with excellence.
From refining my TikTok Shop and planning my 2026 relaunch, to helping organize the Shush Diné Pop-Up Markets and preparing for Project Restore, every experience has helped me evolve into a more strategic, confident, and purpose-driven entrepreneur.
This year taught me that growth isn’t just about business expansion — it’s about discipline, structure, and the courage to evolve into the leader your goals require you to be.

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