Alicia graduated UNC Wilmington in 2009 with a 4.0 in Accountancy. She was offered a position with KPMG, but rather than go into accounting, she accepted a two-year commitment with Teach For America in Jacksonville, Fl and taught 1st grade in a low-income school in intercity Jacksonville. After completing her two-year commitment, she went to Yoga Teacher Training in Nosara, Costa Rica and then moved to Charlotte, NC. Kind of by accident, she became business partners with James Langteaux who was opening a breathwork studio in Plaza Midwood. She helped him add yoga classes and massage.  Shortly after opening, they realized the building was not zoned properly for business and went their separate ways. 

In 2012, at the age of 25, she ventured on her own as a sole proprietor and leased a 3,000 sq-foot building in the trendy neighborhood of Plaza Midwood in Charlotte, NC and renovated it literally from the ground up. Not one inch of that building was not altered or repainted, including the front facade, and Alicia contracted the whole project. With every detail attended to even including an edible, regenerative food farm in the front and back, she orchestrated the entire renovation and design of the business, Okra: Tea, Coffee, Yoga and Massage, now known as just Okra Charlotte. It operated 12 hours a day with a full tea and coffee lounge, 2 yoga studies with up to 8 classes a day, 3 massage rooms with 8 massage therapists. Okra Yoga won Best of Yoga Studio within the first year of opening in multiple Charlotte publications and pretty much every subsequent year after that and continues to win awards to this day. Okra Charlotte is still thriving. 

Three years later in 2015, she brought in a business partner, Hal Smith, previous interim CEO of Bass Pro Shop. They partnered to open Gumbo: The Store now known as Gumbo Goods. Gumbo Goods sells lifestyle apparel for yoga, running, and general health and wellbeing. He was mainly a financial backer and did some product consultation. Again, she orchestrated the full renovation and design of the entire 1,200 sq foot retail space, business and website. Gumbo Goods has also won multiple awards across various popular Charlotte publications and is still thriving today. 

As you can see, vision, design, and creation are Alicia’s bread and butter, so after 4 years of owning, operating and managing two independent businesses, she was ready to move on with the managing part. She sold the majority share to Hal Smith making her a silent partner. For the next 2 years she traveled the world from Australia to Europe to South East Asia to the Bahamas and then back to the US until in 2018 she found Paradise Valley, Montana. She moved out to Emigrant, Montana by herself, bought a 20 acre ranch, a 5,000 sq foot Cold War bunker and a 1,100 sq foot trailer that feels more like a home. She fully renovated the trailer making it into a mid-century modern cozy home with a million-dollar view. 

In February 2020, James Dearing, Alicia’s now husband, met serendipitously at a Phish show but after being separated for 5 months due to COVID lockdowns, he moved out to Montana with her in August 2020. It was truly love at first sight. Both of them have been quarter life retired for a few years just enjoying Montana, traveling, and helping her dad out in his business, Oasis Botanical Lounge. In 2022 Robert had a few health issues arise, and James and Alicia had the space to jump head first into Oasis. Papa is now in great health and they all run the business together. Alicia does the buying and design, James handles the finances, and Robert is the front of house guru and wisdom keeper. Although on any given day you may find any of one of them at the counter ready to give you some good vibes and offer high quality botanicals.

As much as Alicia and James love their freedom and space, they both love to create and are ready to contribute to experiences, projects and businesses in a way that flows and feels inspiring and meaningful to them. They still live part-time in Paradise Valley, Montana and Carrboro, NC.