We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beaux Francois a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Beaux, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The Agape Way Brand is a lifestyle, media, and clothing brand that values and encourages an unconditional love for self as a pre-requisite to love for others. We encourage people to live freely, confidently, and completely as only themselves. We encourage them to fly. We encourage them to soar. We encourage them to be.

It’s about staying true to you: Being what you love to be, and doing what you love to do, despite the opinions of society. The brand pushes self-love through self-expression, or art, as they are interchangeable. All feats of self-expression or art, are, too, feats of self love.

In the beginning, the mission was utopia– a perfect world, where everyone loved everyone no matter the demographic: race, ethnicity, political views, religious beliefs, etc. Though ambitious, this remains an innocent goal, but what was later discovered was the highly significant pre-requisite to everyone loving everyone– everyone loving themselves. Before genuinely loving another, one must genuinely love themself.

Unfortunately, some people don’t know how to love themselves. Some people are afraid to be judged if they choose to love themselves. Some people think of it to be negative, selfish, arrogant… Some people think of it to be weak. Some people don’t know what about themselves to love. Some people think they’re unloveable. The Agape Way Brand’s mission is to change and amend peoples’ ideas of self-love. It is the beginning to a world anew.

Beaux, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In a total essence, I am An Artist from the Hood. At first glance, and upon surface, that statement may burst with colloquialism, simplicity, and antic, but to myself, a swimmer of the profundus, its depth is infinite. I was born and raised in the sublime gumbo pot of the 8th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana where we ate crawfish on the porch by day, and were awoken by gunshots by night. Long before I was consciously aware of my mental uniquity, and its lack of ubiquity, I was different– not specifically in an external sense, but internally. I didn’t think similar to many. I processed and perceived things differently. I had a contrasting understanding about what life was, and my desires weren’t the same as my peers. These things weren’t discovered, or adopted, nor taught to me. They just were. I just was.

What was taught to me, though– and is still being taught– through personal experience, observation, and experiment was the dearth of love present and presented in the world I knew. Early on, I noticed the mass circulation of things not love, and the superior popularity it seized. I saw, assuredly, the way basic attributes separated us as people: race, religion, sex/gender, political preference, etc. I didn’t see this to be a proper way of living, so I wanted to change it. I wanted to encourage people to love each other fully, along with each of their differences. I wanted togetherness. I wanted unity. I wanted a world with only love and support and care for one another.

As that personal experience, observation, and experimenting continued to advance, I learned something more– the most significant thing I believe I will ever learn in life. I learned of the importance of self-love. I learned the importance of self-care, self-respect, self-knowledge… Before we can love someone else for all they are, we must first learn to love ourselves for all we are. The former is impossible to be before the latter. So, this became my practice. This became my being, my life-long journey– to love me, to respect me, to take care of me, to make sure I’m up to par. This became the Agape Way Brand.

The Agape Way Brand encourages this self-love through self-expression, which is also commonly known as art. A painter expresses himself through the strokes on his canvas. He has a masterpiece. A dancer expresses herself through tourners and glissers to the melody. She has a masterpiece. A photographer and a writer express themselves through the eye of his camera and the point of her pen. They have masterpieces. All mediums of self-expression are, too, mediums of art. Hence, we are all creators. We are all artists. As we create… as we express ourselves through any chosen medium, we are performing acts of self-love. We are giving ourselves to the world. We are making ourselves anew.

We have t-shirts, but we don’t sell t-shirts. We sell a message– a message to love and respect yourself unconditionally. The t-shirts just come with it. Other clothing and apparel is also available for side dishes, but they are nothing without the main. Again, the former is impossible to be before the latter. We also have a magazine– The Pegasus– in which we publish the works of different creators around the country to not only promote and celebrate their businesses and artistry, but to encourage self-expression to each reader.

I am most proud of who I’ve become on today, and I look forward to who I’m becoming on tomorrow. Loving you isn’t arrogant and “cocky” as society tells us. It is only the most important thing you shall ever do.

There isn’t much I desire for people to understand about me, because people will choose to think of me what they want, and that’s okay. But, there are things I want people to understand about themselves– You are perfectly put together. You are capable of all, and allowed to evolve. Fear not the judgement of the next man, but instead be courageous and be free. Soar amongst the clouds, for this life has no limits.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest cause for pivot in my life thus far happened to me and my people back in August 2005. Category 5 Hurricane Katrina came through New Orleans and took the life out of the city as she left. Initially, the most popular perception of the event was a tragedy. People lost their homes. People lost family. People lost jobs and businesses, and were left with wonder and without direction. Life as many knew it had died. Why wouldn’t someone feel angry, feel hatred and feel unfortunate after they’d just been wiped out of everything they knew, now lost and confused? Why wouldn’t someone be stressed and mournful after what they were used to was now demolished? Why wouldn’t this be labeled a catastrophe, calamity, disaster…

My pivot came later when I was able to gain a full understanding of what had happened. It came when I made the decision to look at Hurricane Katrina not only as a disaster, but to find and trust the good in it. It came when I built the audacity to say “Hurricane Katrina was a blessing.” I know, first hand, of all that was lost. I, and all the people of New Orleans, deserved to be upset, angry, afraid, and beyond, but holding on to those emotions would lead us no where. They’d only keep us blind to what was and what could be.

I know now that if it wasn’t for that disaster, I wouldn’t be where or what I am today. I know now that in all, there is good reason. Accepting this, and choosing to apply this, was my greatest pivot.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

The message of my brand is most important. More than anything, I want that to be communicated. Creating my own website on Shopify seemed to be best for me not only because of its highly efficient performance, but I feel I am able to make it look exactly how I want to. Having the ability to create the site from scratch, I feel I am able to better share my message, values, and purpose of the brand. There are plenty themes available to choose from, and the platform as a whole remains well up-to-date.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.agapeway.store
• Instagram: @agapeway_
• Twitter: @agapeway_
• Other: Magazine on Issuu: @theawpegasus

Image Credits
Beaux Francois Remy Crispin Brittany Nashell