Today we’d like to introduce you to Sasha the Diva.
Sasha the, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Child…. Let me just tell you this. I was a very crazy little girl. (lol) I knew very young what I wanted to do as early as the age of four. I would go into the bathroom, anywhere with a mirror (get in front of a mirror with utensils and I would pretend to be Barbara Walters. I knew very young I wanted to do radio and television.
Has it been a smooth road?
Can I tell you… I had many difficulties in my life because I was such a wild child, I didn’t want to listen to my parents. I wanted to do what I wanted to do and when you do that you end up having a very soft ass (lol). I ended pregnant as a very young teenager, which was very difficult for me. Coming up in a family with a mother and a father, strong beliefs, I was the black sheep of the family. I was an embarrassment to my parents and it was just a really hard time and “Sasha had gotten herself pregnant”. Many times when that happens to young girls, people think it’s over, they aren’t going to end up being nothing in life, and I was so opposite of that. I finish school, went to college and finished, and interned. I was the girl going to get the coffee asking “how many creams, how many sugars”. I just knew I needed to get into a radio station and learn the business. In learning the business, I had an opportunity to get on the radio, after that long internship. I can remember making $5.00 a hour, I had an apartment that didn’t have furniture, I was sleeping on the floor, eating tuna fish, crackers, and Kool-Aid everyday. I did not care because I was during radio.
Fast forward, I have had an amazing radio and television career. I am now nationally syndicated with my show, Rick and Sasha, heard all over the world and it’s been good and bad. With radio, I also am about business. I am a businesswoman. I learned very young in my life, my father used to tell me all that “love don’t pay no bills”. It took me a second, to get that. I was making money but blowing it. The light bulb went off when I was sitting with my accountant and my dad and they were showing me the money I was going through. I got smart quick, I started saving my money, investing, getting into businesses. That’s me… I’m about business, making my coins.I I have a lot of stuff going on, a lot of people don’t even notice I am the owner of certain businesses. As I don’t say too much, I come in with my husband and we make decisions about what we doing. We get them started, make sure they run smoothly, and make sure the dollars are right.
I have to tell you some of my struggles of being a young mom. I can remember going to school, working, and interning. I didn’t have a car, catching the bus late at night, I was just doing whatever I had to do to get to where I needed to go. I made no excuses for myself, I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I didn’t want people feeling sorry for me. I just had that hustle and grind about me. You know growing up, I had really good parents, my mom and dad. My dad passed away a few years ago and when he passed, they had been married for 46 years. In my household, I saw a father who was a provider, who loved my mom and his two daughters. He was very protective of us, it got to a point where we had dinner together every day. I got off the school bus my dad was waiting for us on the porch. As you get older you think back how amazing that was, I had two parents to love us, guide us, to teach us through the good and the bad. Even though I veered off in the wrong direction, I had a strong foundation that was laid for me, so I came back. I thank God for my parents.
Look! my personality.. one thing you’re going to know about me, I’m going to tell you how I feel, I am very honest, you don’t have to guess. I’m very transparent, I don’t lie, I do not pretend. I am just who I am, I do not try to please anybody, I don’t need anyone trying to please me, I like the glamorous life to the simple life. Putting on a pair of jeans, t-shirt, flip flops, no bra (because I want to be comfortable), to putting on a gown to dining with some of the most fabulous people in the world. I go to the left to the right so quickly. I love my life.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Paint Sip Socialize – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My businesses… I got to tell you, its several of them, but this is the one we opened recently. My friends invited us to a painting studio to paint, drink, and eat, so we went. My husband, my friends, and I were having a really good time. When we left, I was walking to the car with my husband and I said, WOW I want to open one of these. My husband said, “open one of what?” I said a painting studio and he said OKAAYYY and I said I’m serious. We went to that painting studio in September and we were open for business March 1st. So, that was six months later and we were opened. I told my husband what I wanted to do and my husband started during the research. See he wanted to do all the groundwork: find a place, how much is it going to cost, how we were going to make money, all that stuff….
When he came back to me and said “we can do it” we started to roll. I saw that anybody can do it, young children, to seniors can paint. It didn’t matter if you were a Christian or non-Christian. It didn’t matter if you were Black, white, Chinese, or even spoke English. We play all types of music, we play games, we celebrate people’s birthdays, anniversaries, getting married, getting a divorce, new job, children’s birthday, just celebrating life! We just have a good time and that is one of the reasons I wanted to do it. I said you know what, everybody doesn’t want to go to the nightclub, everybody doesn’t want to do that. I thought to myself, “where can I go simple, have fun, meet other people, maybe bring my friends, bring my parents, “ and that’s when I decided we were going to open Paint Sip Socialize!
The important part to me was the location. I wanted it to be walk-up traffic, and you know traffic in Atlanta is HORRIBLE, and I didn’t want the people patronizing our location to worry about parking or have to pay to park. That was one of the things holding us up because we couldn’t find that. Then, I pulled up on Glenwood Avenue, I didn’t even have to go in, I said “this is the location!” When I drove around to the back and there was a parking lot, I said, “we must open this, we must create it, and we have to make this work. That’s exactly what we did.
What you’re going to find at our location is very spacious, comfortable chairs, because when you go to other painting studios and they have those stools, they hurt your booty, it’s just uncomfortable. If you trying to have a party and bring food, you don’t even have space to lay your stuff out. We have plenty of room, child, if you want to eat some chicken, collard greens, mac n cheese, and a bottle of wine or Hennessy we have a plenty of room. It’s just spacious, I think it’s important to be comfortable and enjoy yourself. We have this big stage, we have microphones, we bring people on stage, and they tell us who they are. When they leave we want them to feel special, even if you aren’t celebrating anything we may bring you on stage and make you drop like its hot!
What I also love and is different about us is that we are very diverse with the music that we play based on who is patronizing. We can go to playing Madonna, Cher, Bonjovi, Elton John to Frankie Beverly and Maze. We are really being on customer service! We open on time, we close on time, our place is always clean, when you go into the bathroom, it smells good! When you call or email us our policy is to respond same day or next business day. Customer service is what is driving our business and we have been open and we have been doing very good! I say come on by, give us a chance, bring your friends, and come have a good time!
Pricing:
- 2 – Hour Paint Class is $25 per person
- 3 -Hour Paint Class is $35 per person
- Our Trap Parties (once a month is $40 per person)
Contact Info:
- Address: 1259 Glenwood Ave. SE Suite A. Atlanta, GA 30316
- Website: www.paintsipsocialize.com
- Phone: 770-318-2755 and 404- 390-3700
- Email: info@paintsipsocialize.com
- Instagram: @paintsipsocialize
- Facebook: @paintsipsocialize
- Twitter: @paintsipsocialize
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/paint-sip-socialize-atlanta
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
