Meet Kingsley (aka Moe) Lincoln

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kingsley (aka Moe) Lincoln a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kingsley (aka Moe), so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
It has been the most liberating process, but to speak plainly, I JUST STOPPED GIVING A FUCK! haha! I know excuse my language, but hear me out… I spent most of my childhood in white spaces trying to blend in and lost so much of myself in the process.

So as I created Kingsley (the indie pop star) and go to go on stage and become her, she was a force! Her confidence inspired others to love themself, her self-esteem drew from a place of true self-love. She was everything I (my childhood self) dreamed of being. Each time I was on stage and became her the less I wanted to me (Moe Lincoln).

It wasn’t until 2020 that the stage was taken away, and I was left exactly where I started years before Kingsley was created. So I thought to myself, how do I be Kingsley without having to be on the stage? How do I make Kingsley who I truly am? I didn’t want to have an alter ego, I wanted to JUST BE.

The first step was finding out who Kingsley was to the core, and that was, someone who didn’t care what others thought. So I started there, I stopped caring, stopped asking for permission of what I should wear at the gal’s brunch (or rather, what is everyone else wearing), I stopped noticing the stares when I walk into a room.

Once I started it was hard to stop, the unraveled EVERYTHING that wasn’t who I was truly meant to be.

In a way, Kingsley helped me become the Moe I am today.

Find your Kingsley.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Growing up in the shadows of Chicago, Kingsley was raised to the rhythms of house music. The third eldest daughter of eight, she demonstrated a strong desire to perform and sing from an early age. She sang before she could talk, belting out Disney tunes and performing for family and friends. She joined choir when she was 8 and taught herself to play guitar and piano. By the age of 10, she started a family band with two of her sisters called, Heartfilled. Inspired by The Jonas Brothers, Kingsley wrote and produced her music to match their memorable iconic pop style.

In 2011, after self-producing her first single “Lie Detector” in her parent’s basement studio, Kingsley knew she had to go to college to study music. It was during her college days Kingsley started an all-female, a cappella group, and developed skills in composing and arranging. This path wasn’t easy, yet she completed it successfully, graduating with double degrees in Vocal Performance and Business Administration.

A week after graduating from college, Kingsley planted roots in Portland, Oregon and immediately landed an internship as the marketing liaison at The Old Church, a small indie venue and her abilities and knowledge of the music industry made big waves moving her on to work for The Roseland Theater as Head of Marketing. During her time at the Roseland, Kingsley was immersed in the industry she dreamed to be part of, although she was far from the stage.

After leaving the Roseland Therater to pursue music full-time, Kingsley became the forefront of Portland’s fierce, female-led underground music scene. Hailed as an artist who has “crafted a sound that transcends genres and challenges expectations (PRP),” Kingsley has had the opportunity to open for SG Lewis at a sold-out show at Holcene (2018), be the musical guest for Tedx (2018), remixing “Keep Me Hangin’ On” by The Supremes with Sony/ATV on their compilation album, Falcon Mixtape – Motor City Classix, celebrating Motown artist (2019), play Soul’d Out Music Festival (2019).

During 2020, a year plagued with the hardships of covid and social inequality, Kingsley was fortunate to keep her music career afloat when so many other artist could not. Teaming up with a group of Black American females, she managed to produce the inspiring “I’m Fine” video. The entire cast and crew for the video, including director, choreographer, camerawomen, photographers, stylists, and dancers were Black-American women from Portland. In addition, she landed a brand partnership with black own local makeup company, Event Cosmetics, and is set to release a lipstick collection on Valentine’s Day 2021. And is see to release her album, Crying On Holiday in May of 2021!

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?
– Networking: I find it so easy to network, I forget it is networking because honestly, it is building deep friends around making the world a better place with our art. I will network with the barista and end up doing a lyric video with them, I will network with my Uber driver and work with his granddaughter on a custom outfit for a music video (BOTH TRUE STORIES)… I think we think networking is connecting with someone who is ahead of you, but it is connecting with the world around you.

– Asking for help: LISTEN, I know, I know. You are a strong independent gal, you don’t need no one. BUT other people know more than you, that was a hard pill for me to swallow, so ask for help. They may lead you in a better direction or give you advice that you won’t of ever thought of. But ASK, because asking will always give clarity on direction.

– TELL YOUR FRIENDS WHAT YOU DO / WHAT YOU ARE WORKING ON: your friends are connecting to people but if they don’t know exactly what you do then they can make a proper connection or a connection at all. So openly take about where you are each stage of the way with every person you call friend, and have them know your pitch so they can pitch it with ease. AND THEY WILL, but if they only half know what they are saying chances are they won’t connect you to the right people.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Finding mentors! They don’t always have to be real-life relationships, actually, now that I am thinking about it, most of my mentors on digital… like I haven’t actually met them and THEY def don’t know me by face or name.

But they inspire me to keep going, to follow their light and that has been so helpful on days I feel like quitting.

My entire digital feed is thought leaders, the ones who have done the work and share their enlightenment freely and gild-fully with the world.

When I feel low I use all the tools in my toolbox that my online mentors have helped me cultivate: breathwork, meditation, listening to Jay Shetty’s podcast, and reading books that inspire me…

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