Today we’d like to introduce you to Gloria Mills.
Hi Gloria, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
If you looked at my career on paper, it might seem like I’ve changed direction several times. I see it differently now. Each chapter taught me another way to understand people, solve problems, and create something that makes their experience better.
To really tell the story, I have to rewind to around 2008.
It’s a Saturday night and getting my hair done for school often meant relaxers and threaded twists. As I try to distract myself from the burning sensation at the back of my head and pain from the small rat-toothed comb going through my new growth, I quietly sit through the discomfort because that was simply the routine. And besides, I don’t know how to do my own hair anyway.
I remember looking at myself in the school bathroom one day and deciding that, even if I couldn’t control everything happening around me, maybe I could learn to take control of how I expressed myself through my hair.
Suddenly, that quiet and insecure little girl found an outlet.
Over the next decade, hair became one of my favorite forms of creativity. I experimented on myself, used my little sister as my real-life Barbie, and spent hours trying new styles on friends. By 2018, while I was in college, that passion had grown into Styles by Glo, LLC, which would eventually evolve into Ohemaa’s Crown.
The funny part is that I didn’t really think of myself as an entrepreneur yet. I had paying clients, contracts, repeat business and a growing brand, but I was simply doing something I loved. I loved the conversations. I loved the community. Most of all, I loved watching women see themselves differently after leaving my chair. Long before I had business degrees or product-management terminology, entrepreneurship was teaching me about customer experience, service, trust, operations and what it means to build something people genuinely value.
My original career plan, however, looked completely different.
I entered college on a pre-dentistry track because I was drawn to the combination of helping people, creativity and transformation. Eventually, my grades made one thing very clear: science was not my strongest lane, but business and management were. I pivoted and graduated from Towson University with a degree in Healthcare Management and a minor in Business Administration, while continuing to grow my hair business.
After college, I began my corporate career in healthcare human resources and recruiting. HR gave me a deeper understanding of people, processes, operations and systems. It also taught me lessons I could bring back into my own business, from improving onboarding experiences to communicating through difficult situations.
For a while, I thought I had finally found the career.
Until I realized I hadn’t.
After several HR roles, I became increasingly uninspired, and in 2023 I was laid off. That year became one of the most defining seasons of my life. I was navigating professional uncertainty, personal challenges and the uncomfortable realization that I wasn’t completely sure what came next. I even made the difficult decision to step back from my business after recently rebranding it because I knew I needed clarity about myself before I could have clarity about what I was building.
That reset changed everything.
During that season, I discovered product management and began pursuing my MBA. Product immediately connected several things I had always loved: creativity, business, problem-solving, strategy and understanding people. I realized that much of what I had naturally been doing as an entrepreneur—listening to customers, identifying needs, testing ideas, improving experiences and balancing customer value with business goals, had a professional discipline and language around it.
The pivot wasn’t easy. I completed certifications, took on volunteer product projects, networked far outside my comfort zone and spent many nights wondering whether I was starting over.
I wasn’t.
By March 2024, less than a year after being laid off, I had transitioned into product-management consulting. Today, I work in product and business strategy within the government sector while continuing to build as an entrepreneur.
Looking back, what once felt like a collection of unrelated pivots now makes sense.
Hair taught me creativity and customer experience. Entrepreneurship taught me ownership. HR taught me people and process. Product taught me how to connect customer needs with business objectives. My MBA gave me stronger frameworks and language for ideas I had already been learning to execute through experience.
I once thought I had to choose between being a corporate professional or an entrepreneur. Now I understand that I don’t have to force myself into either box. Both parts of my journey sharpen the other, and I’m excited to continue discovering what I can build at the intersection of the two.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course not. Almost every story has a valley, and for me, those struggles came in several forms, often at the same time.
Identity was one of them.
I constantly found myself asking, “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” and “What am I supposed to do with so many passions?” I felt like I was failing or falling behind in multiple areas at once—from my career, to learning how to regulate my emotions, to sometimes isolating myself simply because I couldn’t figure out who I was or what I was supposed to be doing.
Then there was security.
I never imagined being laid off would turn into nearly a full year of applying, interviewing, learning, hearing “no,” being ghosted and even having ideas from interview assignments used without me moving forward in the process. As if temporarily stepping back from my clientele and attempting to enter a new industry without direct experience wasn’t difficult enough, watching my savings deplete while I continued putting hours into unpaid work for the sake of gaining experience made the uncertainty even harder.
And then came fear and self-rejection.
My mind constantly asked: What if none of this works? What if nobody hires me? What if people forget about my business?
What if, what if, what if.
I was anxious about outcomes that hadn’t even happened. Imposter syndrome was at an all-time high. Could I really pivot into a career I’d never officially worked in before? Could I really be both a business owner and a corporate girlie? Eventually, fear made me hesitant to make any decision at all.
Until I did.
I decided that I would rather take action without knowing the outcome than allow fear to make the decision for me. That changed everything.
The harder seasons of my journey taught me the difference between failure, redirection and resilience. Some of the moments I interpreted as failure were actually redirecting me toward people, experiences and opportunities I couldn’t see yet. I didn’t know that one coffee chat with a product manager at Amazon would turn into mentorship. I didn’t know that people I worked alongside on volunteer product projects would later advocate for me as I pursued the role that became my next major career step.
There were so many connections I couldn’t see while I was in the middle of it.
If I had allowed every “no” to convince me to stop, I wouldn’t have stayed around long enough to receive the eventual “yes.” If I had stopped simply because the process became difficult, I would never know what could’ve happened next.
Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for the faith that anchored me enough to endure the uncertainty. I’ve learned that resilience isn’t always about staying on one path. Sometimes you need to persevere, and sometimes you need to pivot. The important thing is not allowing fear to make either decision for you.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Hi, I’m Glo! I’m a product professional and the CEO/Stylist behind Ohemaa’s Crown, a hair and beauty brand rooted in helping women enhance the beauty they already have, through intentional, high-quality hair experiences.
Ohemaa’s Crown grew from my own love for hair, self-expression and the confidence that can come from that expression. At the heart of the brand is the belief that outward beauty is an extension of you, but not the entirety of who you are. Whether a woman chooses to wear her natural hair, experiment with color, get a silk press or put on a wig, I want her to feel like herself—just expressed differently.
Today, I specialize primarily in custom units, styling and unit restoration, with a growing focus on realistic textures and versatile units that complement the natural beauty and hair textures of Black women and women of color. As I continue expanding my education and technical expertise, my long-term vision is to create an elevated hair experience that brings together custom units, healthy-hair care, styling and education.
What makes this chapter of Ohemaa’s Crown especially exciting is that I’m rebuilding with an entirely different toolkit than I had when I first became an entrepreneur. I eventually realized the principles I learned in product and business strategy don’t stop being useful when I leave the office..they directly influence how I approach entrepreneurship.
I think what differentiates Ohemaa’s Crown is that intersection of beauty, strategy and intentionality. Luxury to me isn’t simply beautiful packaging or expensive hair. It’s attention to detail. It’s understanding why a client is investing in a unit, how it fits into her lifestyle, and how she wants to feel wearing it.
I’m most proud that Ohemaa’s Crown has been able to evolve as I’ve evolved. I started doing hair long before I understood terms like product strategy, customer experience or brand positioning. What I did understand was that hair gave me a creative outlet and an opportunity to help other women feel beautiful. More than a decade later, that purpose remains. I simply have more knowledge, experience and intention to build with now.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is living in the full truth and purpose of who I am and creating space for others to do the same.
I fully believe that God placed each of us here for a reason. We may have different lives, different trajectories and different careers, but I believe there is purpose woven throughout all of it, even the parts we don’t understand while we’re experiencing them.
For a long time, I thought finding my purpose meant figuring out the one thing I was supposed to do. The right career. The right business. The right path. I’ve come to realize that purpose can be much bigger than a title or profession.
For me, so much of it comes back to creating, helping people, and leaving things better than I found them. I’ve seen those same threads show up whether I’m working with a client in my chair, developing a business strategy, collaborating with a team or simply pouring into someone in my personal life.
I believe that when you begin understanding who you are and what you’re here to contribute, you experience a level of peace and freedom that is difficult to manufacture any other way. It doesn’t mean you’ll always know exactly how that purpose translates into everyday life —I certainly don’t—but it gives context and direction to how you choose to live.
And for me, that means continuing to build a life where I can create, serve others and use everything God has given me rather than shrinking myself to fit into one version of who I’m supposed to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Ohemaascrown.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohemaas.crown?stkn=MTdvZnhoejR2NWQ1ag%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/gloria-mills-cposp
Image Credits
Grad & Business photos credited to:
@_Oluwa7
