Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lomax TheBrand. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lomax, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Lomax Construction Consultants came about after seeing so many cranes in the sky, but no representation of the people that live in the city of Atlanta having jobs working on this site. My grandfather was a brick mason. His father was also a construction worker, It is my grandfather’s last name I hold and honor.
My lineage hinges on this man’s name, and I want to create a business where I can employ people and I can give them hope but also pay people fair wage state living wages that they should be getting. I will also bring back trade schools or onsite training for Seniors. Schools don’t have trades anymore so young men and women can learn a trade & or skill set and not only have college as an option. Teaching them how to put up a wall, how to paint, Flooring, etc. Things that we need to keep a lot of these young people out of trouble and that is why I started my company. Generational wealth for me and my family and bring up people with me so that their families can also have generational wealth.
In October of 2020, while driving through the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta, she noticed a lack of men of color working on gentrification construction sites. This sparked something in her, so she made a call to her good friend, the city commissioner of Atlanta. She inquired about the issue and expressed concern, as a woman of color living in Atlanta, that these major redevelopment contracts were not going to Black-owned companies.
As gentrification is already disenfranchising these areas, she wants to make sure Minority-owned businesses are awarded the opportunity to take part in multimillion-dollar construction projects. Lomax is working to implement programs in grade schools so that young men and or women can learn early on how to work in the construction industry. Lomax’s goal with focusing on this niche and or trade is to see fewer teens on the streets, stealing and or selling water, but rather more actively involved in major construction projects across Atlanta.
Lomax, 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?
I would say that my career initially started in brand marketing and sourcing/talent scout finding models, actors, and actresses. One of my first major jobs was working in 1999 VA Jay Williams, who reached out to me via Black Planet. He had a modeling agency, Ebony and Ivory, Talent & Model agency. I ended up getting a Two-page source magazine spread from one of the models that I had scouted from there on an Indigo Red / Azzue campaign which was big in 1999. I started doing radio and voice overs. I was mentored by the great Buddha brothers of the 103. My first artist as a publicist was DJ Joe Pro he was like the Luke of VA, OMG I had to bleach my eyes out at some of the stuff I have seen working with him, but I never judged I was there to push his brand. he also was one of the first artists to go to jail for selling his own CD’s.
I remember The Boodah Brothers …telling me when I walk in the room I command attention, you should do radio or you should be like a hype woman! I was like really like oh OK I’ll do that so that’s what I ended up doing my first interview with Avant, I’m like sooo what have you been doing since you fell off !? The whole room was dead silent lol … But it was right after “My first love” with Keke Wyatt & she had gotten in trouble for stabbing her husband back then so he kind of fell back …… And then my second major interview was with Nore’ who now has drink champs, I’m so proud of him because when I tell you, he’s a real one !!! I remember Capone was locked up and I think they were beefing, but he never uttered a negative word about him although I was digging for something he kept it very positive & said that my brother. The special moment within that interview was when he saw my crab cancer tattoo on my arm, and we started talking about birthdates. He asked me about my birthday. I said 7/3 he said wow that’s the day my father passed so we had a moment. As I proceeded to get up and leave the interview.
He’s like goddamn like I didn’t know you were built like that….. so he came with a song called Bongos on your booty. He then invites me to join them for dinner, went downstairs and we ate and there was like BIGGEST RAT that just flew across feet under the table we’re like probably like 10 of us are sitting to eat and we all jump off running like we never seen a RAT before like he from New York and I’m from Boston right but that that was hilarious and then came to transition from Virginia and came down to Atlanta.
2006 Marc Decoca White Horse Ent. He had a song called J’s at my door and I remember being like I’m in a video, I see my name on a CD cover, I’m helping behind the scenes. I had a solid group of men around me and the only women out the pack and they protected their TT. started working with Anisa Bray ex-wife to Bone Crusher, She and a coalition of women Shameka, DeDe, Mimi, Leslie, and Anisa did a hip-hop and film festival. I was the publicist for that event. I worked with Greg Williams with Hennessy Rolls-Royce, and I did the first ever unveiling of the Rolls-Royce Phantom I think back in 2006 after that me and my former business partner Tashawyna Menefee. We did the first-ever celebrity kid’s fashion show because I have so many connections in the music industry. I knew that, and I’ve always been very good at branding and in knowing how to get an audience or get people interested, so I said well people are NOT just going to come to a fashion show. People will come to a fashion show If celebrities are in a fashion show how do we get celebrities at the fashion show ….. Well let’s invite the celebrity kids to be the models of course, you know their parents would be there to support them. They share their parents with the world, now the parents can see their kids on stage that’s how I pitched it so I was able to get Jermaine Dupri’s daughter Shaniah, in the fashion show, Nadji Jeter who is now an actor in Grown Up’s, Spider-Man, The runner and more. He was the poster model. We used his pictures and likeness to get more kids involved and what a delight to see that I knew then he was a start and who he became to be.
We had Kandi’s daughter Riley, Jadakiss is Goddaughter, DJ Drama. It was a sister-to-sister magazine because the show sold out and people had never seen anything like that in 2006. Shout out to Tashawnya Rainey she found me on Sandarose.com and wanted to have me come on board to work with Don Diva magazine South and from there. I wanted to see her mission come to fruition which was Show me The Way Foundation. I was lost at that time and our business and friendship ended, but man we were so powerful together! love you Tee & thank you for the doors you helped open to and for me. I still laugh at that time you kicked me out of the car but came back for me.
I was the first woman of Legion of Doom records, and we broke records! It’s going down by Yung Joc. In my first interview record pools were so popular TeeJays DJ’s, OZONE etc that’s what we did. We broke artists’ records or songs for them after that I started working with DTP working with Ludacris and Chaka Zulu, and then transition from the music industry into being an entertainment paralegal so I went in that direction and kind of got out of the music industry, but as I worked for some of the best entertainment attorneys rest in peace Charles Mathis, Charles Mathis had his daughter Allison on MTV’s My super sweet 16 so his episode. Then I ended up working for Marvin Arrington Jr. He is an entertainment attorney whose client at the time was Will Packer I filed his paperwork for a club he had next to Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles I think it was called Verve so I did the paralegal stuff for about 10 years just getting completely out of the music industry because it changed completely.
I left the paralegal jobs alone and went to more corporate healthcare, more I T, network databases, for the remaining parts of I would say 2013-2018 I was a fashion stylist. Styling Drew Sidora & Ralph for Atlanta HouseWives, NFL player Ray Edwards to many other people and celebrities. I think my best memory of styling anyone was Princess of Crime Mob-like girl I grew up on Stiletto Pumps in the club. I was so honored to style her for her Birthday!
In 2021 I really started wanting to find myself because I felt like I’d done all these things I mean Teddy Riley is one of my mentors, I can call him and or Killer Mike, but I still felt empty, and unfulfilled I’ve done the fashion styling I’ve had my work I was I’ve been able to go to New York Fashion Week sit front row at shows from my fashion looks and styling and so I’m like I’ve accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish thus far but my GED…. so in 2018 I was turning 39 and I said I’m not going to enter 40 without my GED. and I didn’t get my High School diploma, because my mother was a domestic abuse victim and so with that, we had to go into the hidden victim’s shelter and then we left so I literally dropped out of high school in the 11th grade And we moved to Virginia from that situation in Savannah and so you know people had always told me you’re always already successful, so why do you need to get your GED? It wasn’t about why, it was about me and it was something I wanted to accomplish.
I wanted to find out my purpose. Why am I here? Why do I attract certain kinds of people, Why do I react the way that I react so I got a little bit more into this spiritual realm as far is just like crystals in tapping into manifestation and journaling, and then I started seeing all these numbers and I’m like do you know one thing about me I pay to pay attention to everything and I’m like why am I seeing 1010 everywhere like 10 10 o’clock, my receipt total would be 1010 or 444, 333, 1222. I’m like OK this is not just a coincidence, something is trying to get my attention and so I started getting it in numerology.
As part of my growth, I wanted to conquer a lot of demons that I felt were holding me back. They made me stagnant and they made me scared so I decided on 2-22- 2022 to go back to the first place where I had childhood trauma. I wanted to stand, and I wanted to be in that energy and release it. I wanted to release the pain. I wanted to basically conquer the monster. As a six-year-old little girl I had been molested by my female babysitter, and then she, the intern, had her brothers molesting me while she watched. The next-door neighbors. Her son was humping me and touching me. Then Carl my mom’s weed man raped me he was 18 I was 8. I had so much trauma in Summerville, South Carolina. The mom‘s name was Mickey she was mean as fuck the girl’s name is Katina if you scrape your plate while eating you would get in trouble so I remember eating so soft and so gently and then in my head I had planned that night I said, I am not staying in his house another night and so once everybody went to sleep, I snuck out of the house, and my mother found me sleep on the doorstep of our apartment. I just told her, I don’t want to ever go back there again. I never told her anything that happened. I never told her any of that stuff but I just thought I never want to go back there again and so I never went back. It was so powerful to stand in front of that same door as a 43-year-old woman now and see how small that apartment complex was to me… Haven Oaks was HELL Oaks. I felt like I conquered and I healed and then in December so 12-22- 2022 I went to my father‘s grave. I had not been to my father‘s grave since he passed away in 2000 so that has been 20 years and I said I’m not going to let this year go by without me visiting my father‘s gravesite. Nobody had his plot information on my father’s side of the family in regards to where his plot was, and where he was buried nothing so I didn’t make the 222, but I made it to 23 & Seen not only my father but also my Grandfather ….. the third part of my healing was Savannah, GA just recently having my 44th birthday in & being surprised by a trio from my brother to Savannah was so Iconic because my birthday was on a FULL BUCK SUPER MOON. I haven’t been there since my grandmother passed away in 2004, and I took care of her until she passed away when I was only 24. Being the oldest grandchild and having to deal with all of that without any family support was beyond hard. You get all the criticism but I got no family support. Nobody asked me how I was. How do you mentally deal with your dying grandmother of cancer? You have to remove her wig off her head, you have to take her earrings out of her ears, you have to see her dead body. I was only 24 years old !! I ended up going to all of the places where I feel like I had trauma and released them so that I can be the best version and get the clarity that I need for my mission and what my purpose is and that has been the secret to I think what started me on the journey of Lomax Construction Consultants, LLC & with me writing the book it’s really tapping into everything that you feel like triggers you And you know that’s your trauma right the things that trigger you are your trauma and so we have to tap into those things, and we have to be honest about the things that trigger us so we can deal with the trauma so that we can be functioning healthy people in society
I started to get into life path number and started getting more into manifestation, which is just like writing in a diary, writing your secrets but instead of writing your secrets, you thank the universe in advance for everything that it is going to give you. I think about my grandfather, I hold his last name, I am the lineage of my grandfather, and he was a brick mason, painter, and contractor. I think about holding the name of Lomax and being a black woman and seeing so many young black men out here with no options to better themselves there are no trades in construction, in tech, or coding which are the top-paying jobs. We used to have Home economics classes such as woodshop, typing, and sewing classes in HIGH SCHOOLS…. this bothers me because we breed and birth, and usually nine times out of 10. We (women) are the ones that are raising these young men so as a black woman I wanted to lift my young men and my women up and give them opportunities for jobs because in Atlanta you don’t see a lot of BIG major black construction sites getting these big government jobs or bids you just don’t. I was like as a female minority, I might be able to get first in line for some amazing opportunities and provide these jobs back to the community, by getting certified as a WDBE and then giving people employment! Say less. I’m life path number 9, so I am here to be innovative. I am here to create wealth, and I am here to be a visionary.
I think if more people tap into themselves, they’ll figure out their life purpose and I won’t be driving themselves or others crazy trying to figure it out, but I don’t know if people are ready for that. I have the three 555s (Acknowledgement, Accountability, and Action) these are changes that need to happen to get to the next level if you are NOT sound personally how do you think your business will be, your relationship etc?
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Through everything all 2508 characters typed from the previous question about how I got here and knowing that we all have a life purpose we just have to find it! If you feel off, find out why and change it! We are magical, we can think of a song and it comes on, we can think of a person and they call. I have been to hell and back and still standing in grace.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’m a visionary so I feel I have always pivoted, and it’s always been to the service of others being unselfish. Seeing the beauty, talent, and even vacant land I can take a blank slate and make it the most beautiful opulent elegant vision you can imagine. More people need hope, understanding & encouragement, and less judgment and wanting to fit in! THERE IS ONLY you so be that not them. 
- Website: https://www.
lomaxconstructionconsultants. com/ - Instagram: lomaxthrbrand “
Lomaxthebrand” - Facebook: Lomaxthebrand
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/
tonica-l-360313225 - Twitter: Mislomax
Image Credits
Larry at True Life Media Group and Brian L Christian Photography