Amber Jones was never supposed to end up in finance. The former professional basketball player who spent five years competing overseas had her athletic career cut short by a career-ending foot injury. But what looked like a devastating loss turned out to be a divine redirection. When her brother, an NFL player surrounded by financial advisors, showed up to buy her car with a 500 credit score, something clicked. Jones dove deep into the world of credit and financial literacy, eventually founding Life Key Financial Awareness a company that has helped over 13,000 people build credit, launch businesses, and save on taxes in just five years. Now serving as fractional CFO of Canvas Beauty, one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the country, Jones is stepping into an entirely new arena: reality television. As Stormi’s trusted business confidante and self-described partner in clarity, she arrives on Belle Collective Birmingham as fiercely loyal as she is direct and with old tensions between her and cast member Kayla threatening to resurface, viewers are in for far more than a glimpse behind the velvet rope.
What can viewers expect from Belle Collective Birmingham?
What you can expect from Belle Collective Birmingham is a collective of different individuals powerhouses in Birmingham. We have business owners, content creators, wives, and all the different things. I think it just shows the versatility of women in the South that we don’t just have to be moms and wives, that we can be powerful businesswomen who still find time for sisterhood, friendship, family, fun, and all the things above.
You’ve been described as Stormi’s business soulmate. What does that partnership actually look like when real decisions and real money are on the line?
It looks like clarity and communication. One of the quotes I live by: clarity and communication builds relationships when we’re not clear, we don’t communicate, it destroys them. I have a basketball and athletic background, so I know how it is to fight on the court and then come off and we’re still sisters and best friends. I look at business the same way. We have to learn especially in our community, where we don’t have history in business how to properly run a business. Unfortunately, business is non-emotional. Business is business and personal is personal.
The first episode showed real sparks between you and Kayla. Where do things end up between you two by the end of the season?
We end up at a place. Kayla is a powerful woman, she does great with her business, and in life we’re all different people. That’s one thing we all navigate on the show understanding that we are all different, we were raised differently, personalities are different, and we’re coming together as a collective. Things are going to happen, just like in life, just like in sports, but the goal is to move forward and figure out how to get past every situation.
That’s something I was trying to figure out throughout the season because I come from a background where I grew up in sports, a big family, a whole lot of friends college friends, sorority friends, business friends. I think Kayla just has a harder time navigating because her background is a lot different from mine. That’s one thing I try to give her grace on not only on the show but in real life that we are two different people. On the show you should see us try to navigate, with Stormi being our mutual friend, us being two different people.
Birmingham is being positioned as a rising hub for Black entrepreneurship. What does the city have that people are still underestimating?
I think people underestimate the business part the tech and AI. We have Tech Birmingham, so many different conferences and programs going on. We have the Birmingham Business Alliance coming together to build the next generation of millionaires and billionaires. It’s underestimated when it comes to real estate and how fast it’s growing. We have Mountain Brook, which is one of the richest towns in the state and in the country.
With Birmingham, you can get a little bit of what you need. If you want to go super fancy, you can go here. If you want to go to a hole in the wall and get some good wings, you can do that. I’ve experienced the world I lived overseas for five years playing basketball, seen all the big cities, all the nice countries. The reason I came back to Birmingham is because it’s the perfect mix. The bigger cities were very fast, and in the country where I grew up on a farm, it’s super slow. Birmingham is right in the middle. And there’s just so much love and respect in the South that you don’t get up North or on the West Coast. It’s a different type of hospitality, and the people are just great and so loving. That’s why I came back to Birmingham and chose to live here forever.
You’re known for being very direct. Has your honesty ever cost you something?
From a business standpoint I’m a mentor to a lot of people and I’m very honest I don’t think it’s cost me anything because most people are receptive to me being direct. I make it very known who I am when people first meet me. The people that know and love me know I’m a very soft, loving, family person, but I’m a very serious person when it comes to business and standing up for what’s right. The thing I value the most is friendships. I’m not in a relationship, I’m not married my family and my friends mean a lot to me. So I say the things I need to say to make sure those things stay strong.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in navigating conflict in both business and friendship?
If you don’t communicate, things will go wrong. If it’s not black and white if it’s gray things are going to go wrong, because business is not personal. It has to be black and white or it’ll go wrong. That’s where a lot of businesses fail, a lot of partnerships fail. I had a business partner when I first started my business and it all comes down to clarity and communication. Being clear may seem direct, but at least you get your point across and everyone is clear on what’s going on.
April is Financial Literacy Awareness Month. As a Black woman in finance, what rooms did you have to create access to instead of waiting to be invited in?
I created access to financial literacy. I have my own company it’s called Life Key Financial Awareness and I’ve helped over 13,000 people prepare and build their credit, start their business, and save money on taxes, all within five years.
I had a career-ending foot injury as a basketball player, and how I started my business is my brother was in the NFL and he went to buy my car and he had like a 500 credit score. I said, how do you have all these financial advisors and your credit score is low? That’s when I started learning about credit, and that’s when I realized they don’t teach us about credit in school financial literacy the same people that own the banks own the school system. So if everyone had good credit, the banks wouldn’t make money because of high interest rates. I feel like God took basketball from me to bring me to my purpose. My purpose is helping people with financial literacy. I came onto Canvas a year and a half ago to be the fractional CFO, but I’m definitely the boss of my own company helping people and business owners with their finances, their credit, and starting their businesses.
Success can look glamorous on screen. What pressure or responsibility do you carry that viewers may not fully understand?
For me, it’s navigating the balance of Canvas Beauty and Life Key Financial, my business, and also balancing the personal relationships going on. I feel like I’m balancing two businesses and mixing that business with the personal being on the show with the collective, meeting new girls, while still maintaining relationships and building those businesses. It’s just a slide. You’ll see me maintaining all of that.
If someone watching feels inspired or even intimidated by your level of success and discipline, what’s the first step you tell them to take?
I think it’s to get a deep relationship with God, because when you know who you are as a person and who you’re called to be, you don’t compare. I walk to the beat of my own drum. I keep my eyes on my own lane and I never stay focused on what someone else has got going on what we see on social media is just the highlight reel, and a lot of it is not real life.
The thing I tell business owners starting out: you see the glitz and glam, but you don’t see the nights where we cried every single night, the nights where we lost money, gained money, lost employees, lost relationships and friendships. Life is a battle and you have to wake up and choose. Every day you have a choice choose to be happy, choose to be positive. I did experience a lot of jealousy and different things when I was in high school and college, and that always made me dim my light, because I love people and I care about people. When all I really want is to see you win and see you happy and see you succeed. So I think the biggest thing is to deepen your faith and figure out who you are as a person. When you come fulfilled that way, then everything else comes easier in life.
Why should viewers tune in to Belle Collective Birmingham?
They should tune in to see something they’ve never seen before. You’re going to get a good mix of business, personal, friendships, a little drama. You get to see the behind the scenes of Canvas and the big life to see what you see from the outside on social media, but you get to dive deep into everyone’s life.
A little bit of drama don’t hurt. That’s life life is drama. No one’s life is perfect. For us to step up and put our lives to the public to see, I feel like it’s a big thing because I never pretend like I’m perfect. Getting to open up my life to show the flaws that I have and that we have as people, I think it helps keep us more relatable when all you see on the front end and social media is the highlight reel.
Belle Collective Birmingham premieres April 10 at 8 p.m. CT / 9 p.m. ET.
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