Living The Red Life - How a Small-Town Designer Built Multiple Businesses

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

What happens when a creative mind refuses to stay inside the box? In this episode of Living The Red Life, Adria Nicole Laxson shares the mindset, persistence, and unconventional decisions that helped her build successful brands, acquire businesses, and create a one-of-a-kind destination in Oklahoma. From teaching herself web design during the early days of the internet to becoming the owner of a nationally recognized product brand and launching multiple ventures, Adria reveals how creativity became her greatest business advantage. She discusses product innovation, entrepreneurship, branding, authenticity, and the lessons learned from decades of building businesses across retail, design, hospitality, and e-commerce. This conversation is packed with insights for entrepreneurs looking to turn bold ideas into lasting success while staying true to who they are.Key Takeaways• Creativity can become a powerful competitive advantage in business.• Success often comes from persistence long after others would quit.• Learning new skills creates opportunities that compound over time.• Authenticity becomes a strength when you stop trying to fit into someone else's expectations.• Great entrepreneurs combine vision, execution, and adaptability.Notable Quotes• "I just always feel like I want to accomplish something."• "I can't fit in this box."• "I just gave up caring about that stuff and became authentically me."• "Never let fear be a decision maker."• "When you find your passion, don't just follow it. Grab it at every corner."Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

I just always feel like I want to accomplish something. Right. And normally it just means I want to make something pretty. And then once we got into business, it's just like that's, I was just like focused in and that's what I did. And learned how to make every kind of product you could make and get things overseas. Adriela Laksin is a resilient, innovative, and accomplished entrepreneur and the founder of Citibela from launching a nationally recognized brand to expand. into multiple ventures, she has built a reputation for turning bold ideas into lasting success. I can't fit in this box, I'm not going to make it here. In this box, everybody cares everything

you do. I just gave up like caring about that stuff, not like became a hoodlum, but just becoming, I think, authentically me. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, a Red Life edition. Joining me today is a maker of legacies. Before platforms, before social media, there was the Wild Wild West, which was called the Interwebs. And my cohort here, Adrian Nicole Lackson is a fellow maestro of Dreamweaver.

Weaver of dreams. Yes. How does it feel to be in the future, be amazingly disappointed? I mean, we spent so much time learning those programs. And every once in a while I only know somebody can come up with something. And I'm like, well, I could have done it better, but still that took five seconds. So I think you won. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. We just finished filming your episode for Legacy Makers. Yes. Do you feel like you made legacies? Honestly, I feel like my whole life has been, you know, here and there, especially as an adult. But yeah, a legacy maker, no doubt. Right on. What are we going to learn about you in your legacy maker's episode?

How I grew up, part of the religious family. Part of it I had fun and did creative things when I was younger. and then we get into business and then once we got into business it's just like that's I was just like focused in and that's what I did and learned how to make

every kind of product you could make and get things overseas total designer now that we know all the creative suite you know somebody figured out the full toolkit oh yeah we crawled so everyone else can run Yes. I mean, it may even be that Dreamweaver was the first one where I was actually learning, okay, okay, up a folder, up a folder. Oh, God.

Because once you start, yeah, that's how I didn't know what I was doing. You're already giving me severe PTSD of like subfolder structures not going correctly. You're going to break subdomains. Oh, no. Yeah. But this is like old school talk, like early 2000s like pre-Britney Spears internet. People can't do the same thing nowadays. I know, and it feels my mind. I know.

It's like, you source. I'm like, ah, good old HTML code. Yes. Yes. So talk about that desire to kind of break the rules and learn more. You kind of, that's kind of like your North Star till this day. I just always feel like I want to accomplish something. Right.

And normally it just means I want to make something pretty. And then put it in the house, put it online, you know, I like it. Even if it upsets you, you just want to make something pretty? Oh, it never upsets me. If I'm in a really bad mood, I probably won't want to make something pretty. Do you make anything at all when you're in a bad mood? Besides silence? I pay bills.

Oh, that's good. Because I feel like I'm already going to, you know, not like this. So might as well if I'm a bad mood. Pay bills. Yeah, I clean when I'm in a bad mood. I just start, yeah, I do the dishes. I just get really younger. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, you lock in and then that's actually, that headphones on is when I'm editing. I'm like completely locked in and everything needs to go away. Yeah. Talk about your outfits and talk about how you're expressing yourself just beyond the norm. I think I started surprising people with a purple hair, but I don't even know how long that's been five years now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it purple fades kind of fast. So sometimes it's really purple and then, you know, a month later of you wash it five times and it's quite a bit lighter. Right on. But I love doing it that way. I get I get a lot of compliments and that kind of thing.

So yeah. And then I like in the beginning I was a big fan of Kate Spade in this outfit you can tell. But I've always had my little things to

change the dress, like the belt and you know, something that goes underneath it and the jewelry has to be changed up into something and I've even chained up and I've even chained up, changed up shoes and they were chained up kind of.

I have them here. That's awesome. Yeah, but I like to make my own things and definitely look like you didn't just, you thought you thought about that. Sure. Yeah. Well, what's your first memory you're putting one thing the other thing together going, ah, it's pretty. Like, how old were you when you started

like on your path of creation? I remember liking, really liking clothes when I was younger. And my mom actually said, you were so, like, you didn't want to wear that. If you didn't want to wear that, you didn't wear that. So apparently I wanted to wear certain things from a very young age. But the only, the main thing I remember, which kind of leads into this, because I, I played outside. all the time was this that we were in this shop and there was just this beautiful red dress and it was a little

really yeah and she got it for me and I don't know something about that red dress just did it for me you know now it's got to be more fabulous and I used to put on like cute little boots with skirts to dance to music because I

I felt cool in my little skirt and boots. Oh, yeah, I'd put on massive hair gel on my hair and pretend I was Elvis Presley in front of my grandmother. I love that. Yeah, talk about like, you are a jack of all trade. Folks are going to take a good look and you'd be like, ah, another artist. No, dude, you're good with numbers.

You're good with the guff. Talk about the montage of awesome that you are. First of all, thank you. That's very sweet. Well, I mostly learned all of that accounting for our, it was Ross's in my first store. And it was just right down the street from our house. We sometimes would drive the four-wheeler, but it wasn't built out back then. But I had to learn because the way that we were put into this business, I wouldn't have

done it exactly like it was done. but I had to count every single penny, so I had to learn accounting to the T and make sure all the sales receipts you know reflected the gross and that kind of thing. And so I guess I started out with, I don't know, kaleidoscope, maybe I can, you know, catch on to many things,

but the programs took me a while. Talk about being in the kaleidoscope program. We didn't talk a lot about, we spoke about it briefly in the interview, but I made a note because I wanted to talk about this. What is this kaleidoscope? It's the coolest class. It's like once you start getting into where they just are going to put you in honors courses, you know, they took away the creativity.

And they had us doing all kinds of things and learning all kinds of things that you wouldn't learn. And I remember several times I didn't take a geography class because they did that. the Kalyzko class instead. But these quizzes where you couldn't possibly figure out the answer unless you, you, like, marked everything off the list. And I can't even tell you. There was so much that they did for our creative brains, even just brainstorming. She wouldn't let us just be like, like, we had to have 20 pages of brainstorming.

I brainstorm about everything now. It's funny that you mentioned Brainsomer. I just bought myself a digital notepad, even though we all have iPhones or digital devices, but I want to separate myself from a device that is literally just on making money off of my eyeballs. I just want to return to paper.

And it's just like a simple device that feels like paper writes like paper and it just centers me in the moment. I know. I feel like that sometimes too. Especially in the beginning. When I was like... In Oklahoma. which I think is beautiful

because I lived in Tulsa Oklahoma and then closer. It's beautiful. And I lived in Tulsa for a year and then Sparry Oklahoma for another year. And it was coming from the Bay Area. And it was just like California living to just serene Bible Belt like tradition.

Okay. So you've been in the Bible Belt. Oh, yeah. I get it. I get it. Yeah. So what's that like for you coming from that but just being colorful

and like understanding the rules but not quite following them? Okay. So it started out where I was going to follow every rule that the pastor taught me to follow. And you're supposed to get baptized. And so I kept getting baptized. And he was like, why are you getting baptized again? And I was like, I didn't do something that was very nice.

And he was like, you don't have to do this every time you think you did something on. So I was trying so hard. Then my teenage years came. I had some bad influences. I had some great influences. It's just like for me, for some reason, I couldn't fit in that anymore. It was like I can't fit in this box. I'm not going to make it here.

In this box, everybody cares everything you do, even if you're posting on a Sunday morning because you're supposed to be at church. You know, it's so, so pretty much somebody actually asked me what happens to me because pretty much I just gave up like caring about that stuff, not like became a hoodlum. No, no, no. But just becoming, I think, authentically

me. Part of my French here, but there's a well-known book called Learn How Not to Give a Fuck. Yeah. Written by a really well-known on people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just like, here's how you just live your life a lot having to worry that

it's not the end of the world and that everything is not about you and everything is about you, but just understand about energy and the divine and all that good fun stuff. Yeah. My mom would tell me, we say we were fighting, not fighting,

but talking about something that bothered me or something like that maybe at school. And she would tearfully say, you do know what, you know, the only thing that matters

is you're going to heaven. And I would be like, I have to die for this to get better. I completely hear you. But coming from the Miami noise being born and raised here and then moving to a town where some folks have never left and they're just like Bible beating Christians. They're just like, it was just, I was so enabbered by the fact. It was almost like stumbling until a village that they've never seen technology. It was just like,

wow, these people truly exist. Like, great. Where'd you go? Not like the Amish country or to Tulsa. But it was Tulsa and then Spare. Sparee. Yeah, it was. The countryside is a little different. It is a little different. I speak of it now. So, so. So in such a positive life, I was in a very toxic relationship at the moment as anyone is living in the local level for a year. But I speak of it now years later and I can't help but feel your energy from that past. But in a really divine happy healing way, it's been a very bizarre couple hours for me. I love that. I needed to take that moment and just have that honestly with you on camera.

I'm very familiar with what's happening energy-wise. with the people, with the creativity. A lot of folks out there are stuck or don't think they can get out when really they can. I don't know why I'm going on this tangent. I like it. You know what I mean?

It's really awesome that you are who you are and you just I've learned so much about you in your interview and that... The only thing to fear is fear itself. Yeah, you come from a small town. I'm like, no, dude, that town is... Fuck. Tosolk Oklahoma's fucking cool.

Oklahoma in general is cool All of it is cool It's great I mean There's amazing energy People shit in Oklahoma For all the wrong reasons And it's like dude

Get out Get your head out of the bay In Miami There's a lot of pure magic happening in the center Of this country That people need to enjoy Express Which is what you're doing

Every day with your What's it called? You've got it a whole I just call it Bella Bluff You got a Bella Bluff It's a place And now it's Stone Bluff is a place too You've made a place

Which is fun of what's trying to land on. Yeah, I mean, I kept trying to, yeah, we became a place. We put the place on the map again. For sure. But it backs up to the river. It is just so beautiful. I don't know how anybody else could fit any more cool things into one place because that wildlife. And then the bottom layer, I really want to just put a beach down there.

But it's so beautiful green. And soon I will have purple filled. For sure. Now it's going to take a little while. But I will. All in due time. And everything that we plan is evergreen. Very cool.

Yeah, I guess my point of my whole rant was I spent so much time and energy in the bay with folks and engineers and dreamweavers. Fabricating the platforms we use today. And all they've been trying to do is recreate the feeling I got living in Oklahoma. Yeah. And did you go through the phase where you're using? thought I could put that in parentheses and find somebody, you know, especially if you were looking for an error code or something like that. And so you could find that one form and you were like, thank you.

You can't find those anymore. No, those breadcrumbs, you need for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right on. Oh, gosh. I feel like we can export so many other podcasts from this one. Gosh, how can people find you and list out all your dot coms and your social media handles

can access over you. Okay. Yeah, my social media, I started seeing like 100,000 people in a, I think it was a month or a couple weeks, and I was like, whoa, that's really growing.

But that one's Adrian Nicole Lackson. And then Bella Bluff is Bella Bluff, literally. Or do I have manner? on that one. You've never thought about taking on that persona, Bella Bluff? I have shirts that say

and I almost brought them. I'm just here at Bella being Bella or something like that. I feel like if you go, come to Bella Bluffs and it's yours, it's just like Bella Bluffs already sounds like Moulon Rouge, something over the top, like a cabaret. I love what you're all about, but Bella Bluff should be an alter ego that you do in this location. Well, it's almost like I got an an alter ego.

Trust me, it's not really. But I had one day, when I was going through the divorce, said, you know, maybe I should just go by Adrian Nicole. And just drop the last name, just be Adrienne Nicole.

And the next day, I started getting emails under Adrian Nicole. I started getting mail under Adrian Nicole. People contact me, and I don't even know how they come up with Adrian Nicole. and I like this Adrian Nicole thing because I get L and GQ and all these really cool magazines

and it just says to Adrian Nicole designer like I don't get those under my regular That's awesome But think about it that you recognize the fact that under this different name now you're being looked upon Differently Exactly differently And they know that now I've got that website and stuff

And then you can't like when you go through it can't argue that I've put my work in everywhere. Oh, yeah. That's something that folks like you and I that come from the old web, understand that we've, we've set our stake. We've made our claim. We own these dot coms. And this is, these are our badges of honor.

We are true artists of a path that does not exist. Yes. And people will never learn that again, you know, AI. Oh, yeah, I embrace it or face it. But you need those people in technology because the ones that don't know that and have learned to push more buttons than we had to do. We had to learn the code. Oh, yeah.

You know. Yeah. Which is why. It's never going to be like that for them. Which is why with your brands and my brands is like AI will come and go. We're just going to use AI to help us ascend and create new jobs for new folks that are just a little, a little more advanced than us. So yeah.

Any closing comments? Anything do you want to wrap up with? You've been very fun today. So have you? I really appreciate it. My pleasure. You made it easy. and it was great.

Yeah, right on. I hope you had a great time. And I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up. For Insight Success, yeah, that's Bella Bluff. And I'm Reg. It's yours. Bye. Bye.