Stacey McBride and Kara Thompson on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

As 2013 year is drawing to a close, join Living Your Best Life  as we profile businesses, serial entrepreneurs, and non-profits that will empower, inspire, and motivate you to love your BEST life.

On Saturday, November 30, 2013 tune in to hear from designing women, Stacey McBride and Kara Thompson. Both women turned their love of fashion into entrepreneurial ventures that are making young and old fashionistas alike say "ooh" and "aah".

Stacey McBride's Prettie Girls are now available in time for the Christmas buying season. After designing for an international toy company for nearly two decades and launching the successful So In Style Dolls, Stacey took a leap of faith and decided to start her own line, One World Doll Project. Stacey created Prettie Girls to celebrate global diversity. Tune in to hear her inspiring story.

Also on the show will be Kara Thompson of  Kara's Creations. Kara Thompson is an attorney, public relations professional, and event manager by day who turned her hobby of designing jewelry into a business. Family and friends were her initial customers but it was not long before her handcrafted semi-precious stone custom pieces were in hot demand in Atlanta and beyond. Listen as Kara share how Kara's Creations was launched and hear her plans for her line in 2014.

Stacey McBride and Kara Thompson will help ignite your fire to do something you always dreamed of accomplishing and how to face the "what ifs" that may be holding you back to having the best year yet in 2014.

Living Your Best Life, a radio show that empowers, inspires, and motivates us to live our BEST life, is heard on 760AM The Gospel in the Middle-TN area, Tune In, Inspirational Networks, military bases and on Ustream.TV worldwide from 9:00-10:00am CST.

More About Stacey McBride

As a child Stacey consistently played with dolls.  Barbie was her favorite.  She loved mixing and matching her clothes, and styling her hair.  Not long after Stacey stopped playing with Barbie™ dolls at the age of 13, she made the decision to enter the fashion world.  She started sketching fashion and going to the library and checking out books about fashion.

Stacey’s father had saved a newspaper article that featured Kitty Black Perkins, a Mattel™ designer.  With the encouragement of her father and her instructor of a fashion computer course at El Camino College, Stacey called Perkins.  In addition to showing her portfolio and resume during the interview, Stacey had to design a Barbie™ fashion.  It was approved and she was hired as an assistant designer which begin her career in the world of toys and doll design.

Stacey was a Project Designer for Mattel™ in El Segundo and was with the company for 15 years.  She is the creator of the So In Style™ line of African-American Barbie™ dolls which were released in 2009. While at Mattell, Stacey was tapped to design the sorority Barbie, Celebrating the Centennial year of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first African-American Greek Sorority, founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.  She designed a one of a kind take on the 1980’s Black Barbie.  She also designed some of the 2010 Barbie career dolls, including Pet Vet Barbie, Rock Star Barbie and Bride Barbie.

Stacey has been interviewed for magazines and newspaper articles such as Ebony, Essence, Heart & Soul, LA’s Beauty Beat, Upscale, Chicago Sun Times and Daily Breeze.  Stacey McBride-Irby made the front cover of Wall Street Journal Personal newspaper.  The So In Style ^TM dolls have been featured in Barbie and Jet magazine.

Stacey has appeared on CNN Prime News with Richelle Carey “New Barbies Look More Like Black Women”.  And on May 2, 2010 Stacey appeared on BETs My Black is Beautiful, Episode 1:  Celebration of Black Beauty.  She is currently a featured designer in the Barbie Exhibit at The Children’s Museum of  Indianapolis.

Stacey’s motto is, “A happy, inspired childhood creates happy, inspired and powerful women.”  She also loves the Lord with all her heart.  She knows that without God that none of her accomplishments and success would be possible

More About Kara Thompson

Kara L. Thompson is a strategic, team-oriented professional with more than 16 years of experience in legal advocacy, workforce management, public and community relations.  Kara has a passion for interacting with people from all walks of life and has created Kara Thompson Enterprises to create a business that capitalizes on her superior interpersonal skills and talent for connecting people and problem solving.   

Prior to launching Kara Thompson Enterprises, Kara was an employment law attorney in Ogletree Deakins’ Atlanta office.  Before joining Ogletree Deakins, Kara practiced in the Atlanta offices of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker and Jones Day. Kara is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and Purdue University.

Kara’s experience includes representing and counseling both large and small employers in all facets of employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, discipline, terminations, wage and hour, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act matters. She also assists employers with state and federal employment law compliance and in drafting employment policies and procedures.

Before attending law school, Kara worked for six years as a public relations professional for Spelman College, JacksonHeath Public Relations, and the American Red Cross. As a public relations professional, Kara created comprehensive public relations programs, successfully pitched numerous stories to the media, wrote press releases, collateral, newsletter and magazine articles, created and managed special events, and organized community relations activities for various organizations. 

Kara is very active in the community and has a passion for philanthropic endeavors. Currently, she serves on the board of directors for Dress for Success Atlanta, the National Black MBA Association Atlanta Chapter and the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (“GABWA”).  Additionally, Kara is a member of Women’s Legacy Council of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, the Atlanta Women’s Foundation Destiny Fund Class of 2009, The Girl Friends, Inc., The Buckhead Cascade Chapter of The Links, Inc., and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.   Kara has served on the boards of the Juvenile Justice Fund, Camp Fire USA Georgia Council, and the Samuel L. Jones Boys and Girls Club and is a graduate of the United Way’s Volunteer Involvement Program.  Kara is also a member of the American Bar Association, Atlanta Bar Association, National Bar Association and the Gate City Bar Association, and served on the planning committee for the National Bar Association’s convention that was held in Atlanta in July of 2007. Kara is also the founder of a dinner club in Atlanta that was featured in the June 2007 issue of Essence Magazine.