Two tenacious Birmingham belles with a penchant for keeping it real have stepped into the spotlight, speaking candidly with BOSSIP about business, the charm of Alabama’s Magic City, and the “attempted Southern hospitality” among a group of six strong-willed women.
Source: Belle Collective: Birmingham / OWN
Amber Jones and Funmi Ford shone during the premiere of OWN’s Belle Collective: Birmingham, where they detailed their boss babe mindsets while opening up about their personal lives.
For content creator Funmi, who’s known for her flair for fashion, that meant showcasing her husband, sons, and even sister, while highlighting her heritage.
It also meant showcasing her spicy personality, as she quipped that her hubby shouldn’t have a say in the design of their new home.
“I don’t think a man should get a vote when it comes to your house, especially if you’re the architect in the home, which women, that’s what we are,” said Funmi. “You’re not in the kitchen cooking. You’re not cleaning this house. You should just let me find the house, and then you bring your paycheck.”
As for Amber, the Belle Collective: Birmingham premiere meant detailing her previous professional basketball career, her Life Key Financial Group, and, of course, Canvas Beauty.
Jones is the proud CFO and self-described “business soulmate” of Stormi Steele, whose Canvas Beauty empire continues to grow as seen on the show that highlighted the brand’s La La Anthony Collection launch.
Source: YNOT iMages / @ynot_images
The successful career women are two of the Belles starring in Carlos King’s latest reality show about navigating business, family, and friendship in the South.
For Funmi, the show offers a chance to challenge perceptions and present a more unfiltered version of herself, she told BOSSIP’s Managing Editor Dani Canada.
“I’m a really funny person,” Funmi said. “I feel like sometimes people don’t see that. They think I’m sort of strict, but I like to have fun. I like to laugh. I don’t take myself seriously.”
Amber, meanwhile, is leaning into the personal, inviting viewers into her home and her unconventional family dynamic.
“My niece lives with me… so we’re more like sisters,” Amber said. “Just seeing me balance trying to develop her into a young woman while also acting as close friends, that’s the part I’m most excited for everyone to see.”
While Funmi said joining the series was an easy yes, because it aligned with her work as a content creator, Amber approached the opportunity more cautiously, stepping out from behind the scenes for the first time.
“I’m always the person behind the scenes,” Amber said. “Putting my personal life out there was a really big thing for me—but I was like, ‘Why not? What’s the worst that can happen?’”
Source: Belle Collective: Birmingham / OWN
That shift comes with a learning curve. Funmi, who is used to curating her digital presence, described the transition to reality TV as both freeing and unsettling.
Source: Belle Collective: Birmingham / OWN
“For the internet, I call it controlled vulnerability. I show you what I want you to see,” she told BOSSIP. “You can’t really do that with reality TV. You’re having to be your most authentic self.”
Still, both women embraced the opportunity, bringing their families along for the journey, even as they navigated the discomfort of increased visibility.
“It was a little scary… having people meet my kids, my husband,” Funmi said. “But at the end of the day, you only have one life. Take every opportunity. Make the most of it.”
Beyond personal storytelling, Belle Collective: Birmingham also aims to reframe narratives about the South, particularly Birmingham, the “Magic City” the cast says is often overlooked.
“We’re really thriving,” Funmi told BOSSIP. “Whenever I travel and I’m in New York, they’re like, ‘Girl, you’re in Alabama? What is there? Tumbleweeds? Are y’all barefoot?’ Have y’all never stepped foot in the South? It is not what it was back then. Birmingham is so metropolitan, so thriving. We have a great mayor who’s doing great things. I’m so excited that he brought it here because we needed something like that here.”
Amber echoed that sentiment, framing Birmingham as a city that offers both balance and opportunity.
“It’s not too fast and it’s not too slow. It’s the perfect mix,” she said. “The perfect mix for families, the perfect mix for career. You can connect on a deeper level with different entrepreneurs. There’s so many different cultures here, so many different vibes. You can be really fancy one day, go to a hole in the wall the next. It’s okay with just being who you are.”
The ladies agreed that the sense of identity and community is central to the series, though it doesn’t come without its challenges.
When BOSSIP asked whether Southern hospitality defined the group dynamic, Amber was candid about the realities of blending six personalities.
“There was attempted Southern hospitality, for sure,” Amber said. “Everyone has their own definition of it… and when you’re bringing together a group of six women, it can have its ups and downs. Everyone was raised different. Everyone speaks different. Everyone has different opinions. So bringing that together, it was a little difficult.”
Source: Belle Collective: Birmingham / OWN
Funmi added that much of the early friction stems from navigating those differences in real time.
“You don’t know how to communicate because you all have your own style,” Funmi said. “You’ll see the rough patches in the beginning, but really how we navigate that. I think that’s going to be the best part of the show.”
Still, both say the experience ultimately reflects the realities of entrepreneurship, far beyond the polished images often seen online.
For Funmi, that means pulling back the curtain on both the wins and the setbacks.
“If we can do it, you can do it too,” she said, noting that success is often more complex than what’s portrayed on social media.
“It’s not this glitz and glam process… you see when we make the millions, but you don’t always see the things that go wrong. With the show, you’ll see the roller coaster of what a business really is. It takes work. It takes growth. It takes losses and failures.”
Amber echoed that sentiment.
“Just do it,” she said. “You’ll see us failing, figuring things out, throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks. If you get anything from us, it’s just to start. Done is better than perfect.”
The moment even sparked a laugh during the interview, with Amber joking that her niece has her saved in their phone as “MLK” because she’s “always got a dream and a quote.”
As for how they would describe Belle Collective: Birmingham, Funmi offered three words: “strong, beautiful, growing,” while Amber summed it up more succinctly as “the perfect mix.”
Together, the two say the series captures exactly that, a layered, evolving look at Black business, sisterhood, and self-discovery in a southern city carving out its own lane.
A new episode of Belle Collective airs Friday at 9/8c on OWN!
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